Duel of Fates
by Omega Gilgamesh
Summary: Complete. A new student in the Garden with many secrets becomes entangled in something greater, and in the end, must choose between his fate, or that of the Garden's.
1. Prologue

Duel of Fates

By Omega Gilgamesh

Disclaimer: I don't own the FFVIII world. Wish I did, but I don't. However, I do own Hideo; don't use him without my permission, which I will give out like a hot potato. Please, just ask first.

Note: Well, this is my first fanfic, just rewritten. For a little history, I was at 195 pages with my first draft, that's 10 chapters, and I had one left to go, and the Mighty Clown of Destiny screwed me over and made my computer die. I had less than half the story posted, with no backup. Why I'm now rewriting it, I have no idea. Probably because I'm still ashamed of how much I was power-playing.

Prologue:

He fell to his knees, shock overriding his senses. He put his hand to his chest, and saw blood oozing through his fingers. _This isn't happening._ He prayed.

The sorcerer stood before him, laughing, mocking his weakness. He truly was weak, and only now, as his lifeblood left him, did he understand it.

Off in the distance, he heard screams, cries for help, cries of pain, cries of desperation. Cries that he could not make, now, with a shard embedded in his lung.

His head sagged, his body convulsed, and blinding pain shot through him as he coughed up blood to mix with the crimson of hundreds of humans and monsters that covered the fields. All around him, the bodies of SeeDs, soldiers, and monsters lay lifeless, mutilated, their faces carved with submission to hopelessness.

It truly was hopeless, only a fool would dare hope, and he had been such a fool. Here, on this field, he was going to die. How could he have thought he had a chance, against one powerful enough to destroy a GF? Now, he had nothing. His guns were empty, he had exhausted his magic stock, and now, his sword was shattered. How fitting that his first weapon for taking life would now claim his own.

"Hmm." The sorcerer mused. There was a shallow cut on his cheek from when he shattered the other's sword. "That was careless of me."

_I'm going to die._ He realized. Suddenly, all his fears ended. All the pain he bore since his birth, all the hatred and suffering he endured throughout his life no longer existed. He never knew, until now, just how afraid he always was. For the first time in his life, he was content to be where he was, dying here on this battlefield, all fear gone.

He sensed the man charging his power to deliver one last blow, one that, he knew, would incinerate his body. _Fine by me._

As the last few seconds of his life, each feeling like hours, ticked away, Hideo wondered how everything lead up to this point.


	2. First Impressions

Duel of Fates

By Omega Gilgamesh

Disclaimer: I don't own the FFVIII world. Wish I did, but I don't. However, I do own Hideo, don't use him without my permission, which I will give out like a hot potato. Please, just ask first.

Note: Well, this is my first fanfic, just rewritten. For a little history, I was at 195 pages with my first draft, that's 10 chapters, and I had one left to go, and the Mighty Clown of Destiny screwed me over and made my computer die. I had less than half the story posted, with no backup. Why I'm now rewriting it, I have no idea. Probably because I'm still ashamed of how much I was power-playing.

Chapter one: First Impressions

Lights flashed by, the soft rattling and minor tremors were relaxing. Relaxation was hard to find on this trip. Many hopes and dreams ran through the cabins of the train as those lights that flashed by did.

Hideo Masters stood in the hall, leaning on the railing, staring at the passing lights. They were mesmerizing. They helped him relax. He was going to Balamb Garden, and hopefully become a SeeD.

To his left, he saw the SeeD recruiter helping a five year old to look out the window and see the underwater tunnel. There were also preteens and teenagers, like himself, onboard this car. But they were different, they didn't have the same reason for going to Balamb Garden.

Hideo Masters wasn't tall, he was actually a little on the short side. He had light brown hair with blond highlights. He had a blue trench coat with a golden serpentine dragon design that went across the back and coiled the arms with the head and tail meeting on the chest. He wore a black loose jumpsuit under that, with the same dragon design, only silver. The pants and the sleeves were tied off at the ends. Complete with the black garment was a black cloth belt.

He turned around and walked into the cabin behind him. On the bed was his sword, Lunar Edge. A three and a half foot double handed, double edged sword, with a groove going down nearly the full length of the sword and a small hand-guard. The blade was in it's sheath, but under that, it was semi-transparent blue.

A lot was about to happen, and he would be at the center of it all.

0000000000

In the bus, Hideo tried to find a quiet spot in himself, a place to meditate. The kid next to him, who was literally hopping with excitement wasn't helping much.

In hopes of ignoring the child, he looked out the window to the grassy fields of the Alcauld Plains. Before he left home, he had never seen this much wildlife in one spot, even if it was mostly grass. But as he had waited in Balamb with the others, waiting for the bus, he felt unusually out of place. There was almost no one there, and other than the wind and a few birds he had never seen before, there wasn't a sound. The absolute calm felt more like a gaping void than anything else.

Hideo pressed his forehead against the cool glass window. _It's only been two days, so don't get homesick already._ He told himself. _Besides, it's not like you could return if you wanted to._

He let his mind drift over various memories, often trying to remember something else as what he thought of easily drifted into unpleasant recollections. After some time of this, the bus stopped, breaking his reverie.

"Everyone, off the bus." One of the SeeDs in front ordered.

As soon as Hideo stepped out of the yellow bus, he was greeted with a sight he never expected. The citadel and school of Balamb Garden loomed above them, it's shadow stretched across the plains for half a mile.

"Keep it going, buddy." The cadet behind him said, giving a light push.

"Oh, sorry." He realized he had been blocking the bus's door. "Uh, it's just…"

The cadet, maybe a year younger than Hideo, looked up at the floating academy and said, "Yeah, it's impressive, ain't it?"

That wasn't the word he would've used; 'beautiful' maybe, but he was more surprised to find this kind of technology out here. _If they can get the Garden to hover, then why does the bus still use wheels?_ That particular mystery was furthered by a series of wide, vertical triangles that descended from the Garden's entrance a hundred feet above them, forming a stairway thirty feet across.

"Up the stairs, everyone." The same SeeD as before ordered.

Some of the other cadets were surprised by the floating stairway, and walked up it with caution. Under Hideo's foot, none of the stairs moved at all, unperturbed by his weight.

The inside of the Garden was cavernous, with only the central column of elevators that broke up the space.

"Welcome to Balamb Garden." The head SeeD announced. "I will go get Headmaster Kramer. Please stay here until then."

When she left, several of the thirty or so new recruits put their luggage on the ground, and some even walked over to one of the nearby benches, tired out by the long trek up the stairs. Hideo didn't have anything to put down, bringing only his sword and a few things in his pockets.

A girl, the same age as Hideo, put her stuffed duffel bag on the ground with a huff, and looked around the room. "This is amazing! Have you ever seen such technology?"

"You must not get out much." Hideo answered, not taking his gaze away from the surroundings.

She chuckled as if it were a joke. "Interesting accent." She commented. Then she turned to look him in the face. She had long chocolate brown hair, black jeans and a blue T-shirt under a blue-and-gold grendel hide vest. "Where are you from? Let me guess, the science fiction community?" She said with a playful tone.

"No, Esthar actually."

She chuckled, apparently taking it as a joke as well. "Yeah right. Seriously, where are you from?" He didn't respond, just looked at her with a pitiful look, as if she said something incredibly stupid. Her grin left her face. "You are serious?"

"Attention all cadets!" The female SeeD from before announced. Then she turned and gave way to an elderly man in a red vest with spectacles. Hideo had seen plenty of things since leaving Esthar that showed him just how technologically inferior the outside lands really were, and seeing a man who had actual corrective lenses, and one who had the financial resources to easily get rather simple surgery for it, was one of them.

"Welcome, everyone. I am the Headmaster and current Garden Master, Cid Kramer." The elderly man announced. The man didn't look anything like a Military Academy leader, more like a university professor. The headmaster then turned to the teenager behind him, maybe eighteen years old. "This is the commander of SeeD, Balamb Garden's elite mercenary squad, Squall Leonhart."

Hideo looked at the man, and felt a swell of fear rise up within him. The commander had a scar running across his forehead. _Oh great, with the medical knowledge of this place, I'll probably die if I catch a cold!_

After a few minutes of talking about the Garden and SeeD's role within, a few SeeDs started calling out names to give out class schedules. It took Hideo a few seconds to figure out what the material was the schedule was printed on. _Is this paper?_ Actual wood, wasting environmental resources on such small things when personal datapads wasted nothing but a few QPs of energy. He shook his head, and muttered under his breath, "Barbarians."

"Student ID: 3521, Hideo Masters?"

Hideo turned his head and saw one of the Garden Faculty addressing him. "Yes?" He answered.

"Headmaster Cid would like a word with you." Hideo looked past the heavily clothed man and saw the headmaster and the commander standing away from the crowd, looking at him.

"Uh…thanks." He replied, then folded the paper and put it in a pocket before walking over to the two men, feeling this was not going to end well.

"Hello," he greeted them, "I heard you wanted to talk to me?"

The headmaster pulled up a sheet of butchered wood from a file and adjusted his spectacles. "Hideo Masters, age: 15. No family on record, no legal guardians, it says you still got an education on par with your age range, you still attended public schooling, and you left your orphanage to come here."

"Yes, sir. That's all correct." _Get to the damn point already!_ He silently shouted, nervous as hell.

"Out of many children who were interviewed for the position of first official Estharian Garden student, why did they pick you?"

"Sir, I have no family, at my age I doubt anyone was going to take me, I hated the orphanage, I had no connections back home so no one would raise a fuss and cause the government extra paperwork." Hideo added as an afterthought, "And besides that, I've had to endure plenty of schoolyard fights."

The headmaster tilted his head forward so he was looking above his glasses. "Schoolyard fights?"

"Yes, sir. They got pretty bloody sometimes. I knew a kid last year who got beat so bad, he been getting neuro-corrective surgery ever since, and he still can't quite walk as he used to."

The headmaster raised his eyebrows, and looked to Commander Leonhart, who had his arms uncrossed for the first time since Hideo entered the Garden. "Well," the headmaster said, "it seems fighting shouldn't be something entirely new to you." He put the paper back into the file. "I have high hopes for you, being the first Estharian to grace this Garden. That is why I have assigned you to Weapons Master Malak. He's the one who trained Squall here, and many vie for his teaching."

He reach out and grabbed Hideo hand, giving it a solid grip. "That is all, mister Masters. You are excused."

0000000000

Hideo squinted while looking out the window of his double-dorm. It was approaching early evening, and the sun was peeking into the view, without automated tinting windows to protect his vision. _How can those with glasses even go outside?_ Despite the brightness, Hideo couldn't help but look over the vast plains. In Esthar, unless you got on the rooftop of a tall building, you would be lucky to see as far a thousand feet straight ahead of you.

He turned from the magnificent view to check the time on the clock on his desk. As was everything else around here, the mechanical part of the clock was far too big just to display a few LED light numbers. It was almost time for class.

He got up and left the small room and then the room connecting his with his dorm-mate Vicks. Vicks was a little older than him, but from what he has seen of him in the hour they've known each other, Hideo wouldn't be surprised if he couldn't hold his own against a Bite Bug. What he should have spent in combat training he spent almost entirely in military intelligence courses.

Hideo made his way halfway around the circular main hallway when he heard someone rapidly approaching saying, "Excuse me, excuse me!" He turned and saw the girl in the Grendel hide vest running up to him. "Hey, they said everyone in our age group is in the same class. Room eight?" He nodded. "Good, 'cause uh, I don't remember where it is."

He pointed straight up. "Second floor."

Recognition registered on her face. "Oh right, all classrooms are on the second floor." He turned and continued walking down the hall, and she followed. "So what's your name? I'm Delta Locke."

"Hideo Masters." He answered, not looking at her while they walked.

"Huh." She murmured.

"What?" He asked.

"Well, I kinda expected some kind of…exotic name, you being from Esthar and all." She answered, nervously.

He shrugged. "Well, most people on the three main continents are descended from immigrants from Centra. I heard names haven't changed much since then."

They got in the elevator, and after the doors closed, Hideo tapped on the doors with his knuckles. "What is this stuff?" He asked.

"Uh…it's glass?"

He turned to her. "Silicates and potashes? Isn't this stuff brittle?"

"Well…yeah, it's glass. If it breaks, the shards can be sharp, if that's what you're asking."

He backed up and leaned against the wall, shaking his head. "I can understand you might not have discovered how to make transparent alloys, but I thought you'd at least have invented hard plastics."

She thought about mentioning that they had invented them already, but thought about the questions that might bring up and decided to let it slide. They found room eight and sat down, she took a seat behind his.

A few minutes later, a tall, honey haired woman in a SeeD uniform walked in and sat at the front desk. "Good evening, class. I am your instructor, Quistis Trepe. As many of you know, Balamb Garden is the headquarters of the elite mercenary organization, SeeD. Besides our top class military education and training, we also employ, or Junction as we call it, Guardian Forces." The rest of the class she talked about what Guardian Forces were, dispelling several myths about them, and talked about how they were sentient beings of magic, theoretically sharing a collective power source known as the GF matrix.

0000000000

Evening the next day, Hideo, Delta and the rest of their class gathered in the Training Center, with Instructor Trepe and the Commander there. They had spent the entire day taking tests, from eyesight, to hand-eye coordination, to various balance tests, to strength. A table was brought into the main area outside the monster's lair, various weapons lay on it. Not all the students had already picked a weapon like Hideo had, but since he had good eye-sight and steady hands, they gave him a couple of .45 pistols.

He practiced a few times ejecting and reloading the magazine clips and pulling back the slide to load the chamber, trying to get the feel of the movements down so it would be easier if he had to reload quickly. More than anything, he had nothing else to do.

Delta practiced a little with a pair of deer-hook swords to see if she liked them, the linked crescent blades similar to the hand guards of her double-hook swords. She said she had had those swords almost since she was old enough to hold one. He only saw her practice a little, but she looked very good.

"Attention, class." Instructor Trepe called out. "We have spent the last day explaining GF to you, so now it's time for a demonstration."

_This ought to be interesting._ Hideo thought. He saw how dedicated many of the students were, but with so few using guns or any kind of advanced weaponry, he had a hard time seeing how these people were considered one of the most elite military forces in the world.

Commander Leonhart stepped forward. "Everyone who is holding a gun, step in front of me, thirty feet away." Hideo and three other did so. The commander pointed to one of them, a thirteen year old with black hair. "You, shoot at me."

The boy did a double take. "Excuse me…uh, sir?"

"Shoot me," he repeated himself, "that's an order."

The boy hesitantly switched the safety off his .5 caliber heavy pistol, and started to lift it to point it, but didn't lift it completely, looking frightened.

"SHOOT ME!" Commander Leonhart shouted, and half a second later a loud bang was heard, along with a flash from the muzzle. In less than the blink of an eye, the commander had his gunblade lifted in the air, a spark fizzling out in midair in front of him.

A deep silence followed, so clear Hideo heard four echoes from the gunshot. The commander lowered his blade, and said, "Fire all your bullets." A couple seconds later, the cadet obliged, and moving faster than what any rational mind would say was humanly possible, his gunblade knocked each bullet out of the air before they would hit him. When the black haired boy's magazine went empty, he ordered Hideo to shoot him as well, and as well, each bullet the Estharian shot was deflected.

When the other two had exhausted their clips, Instructor Trepe stood next to the commander. "GFs do not only make our bodies faster and stronger, and our reflexes faster, but they also have a powerful intuition about them, they can sense things and make calculations faster than any human. They can notice things, such as the minor twitch of a muscle that happens between the time the opponent decides to strike and the moment the body moves to strike, and the more we become in tune with our GF, the better we are to able to recognize such things, such as the exact place and moment of when to strike to knock a bullet out of the air."

Hideo was stunned.

0000000000

Two weeks later, Hideo lay on his bed, staring at the window as rain beat lightly against it. He had just received his first GF that day, the one assigned to him by the Garden. He held Krakken, a water GF, in his hand, the sphere's glossy, slightly squishy surface covered a swirl of turquoise and aqua blue within. Tomorrow he would be learning how to use this magical squid to cast magic. Already when he junctioned it, he was able to jump twice as high, run half again as fast as before, and he was much stronger.

From here, he could only go up. All his instructors, including Malak, said he was getting better every day.

_I might as well try to get into SeeD while I'm at it._ But for now, he had to make a report. They would want to know what he had found out so far, and he was fairly sure the Garden's technology wouldn't pick up the long range signal.

End of Chapter One.

Author's Note: Expect to see these at the end of chapters. For those of you who may have read the original version of the first chapter, you'll notice I've rewritten nearly the entire thing. I'm also making some changes to other chapters as well to make the story flow a little better, and to accommodate the changes I've made. I will also be expanding Hideo's fight sequence in the next chapter.

Anyways, Hideo's sword is the same kind Shu Lin used at the end of her fight with Jen near the end of _Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon_.


	3. Nightmares

Disclaimer: Do I own FFVIII? No. Kinda wish I did. I own Hideo, and that's about it. Seth, Sevial and Xak are all owned by my friend Demonic Chocobo, and I'm using them with his permission. They played a larger role in my first draft of Duel of Fates, but they were really just there for my friend, so this cameo will probably be the only time you'll see them.

Note: I have been told that the fight sequence in this chapter is a little long for a beginning fight. I'm just warning you about that, because I'm not going to change it.

Chapter Two: Nightmares

"This is a Malboro." Instructor Trepe told the class. It was two months into the school, and Hideo was getting restless.

He was established as a SeeD hopeful, because despite his relative lack of strength and magic power, he had a good tactical mind. While this was generally seen as a good thing, his instructors insisted that he harden his battle prowess. The fact that he had repeatedly outsmarted his technology teacher gave him a bad reputation among the faculty, and he naturally tried to distance himself from the other students, despite any distancing or attraction because he came from Esthar.

"The Malboro has half a dozen hearts situated here, here, here, here, here, and here." Quistis pointed out on the large screen with targets. "Other than their hearts, stomach, intestines, and gas sack," that caused a few students to chuckle, "they don't have any other internal organs." She continued with a hint of annoyance. "Because of this, a good strategy when combating one is to take out the gas sack." She highlighted the largest organ. Hideo still had a hard time adjusting to two dimensional displays, they just seemed so inadequate for teaching anatomy.

"By doing this, it reduces our chances of being hit by their famed breath attack." The blonde instructor continued. "A Malboro's breath comprises of many different substances, sometimes cyanide and ammonia depending on what it's eaten. Usually, exposure to Malboros breath causes vomiting, loss of eyesight, either hypersensitive hearing or loss of it, vertigo or loss of balance, varying degrees of internal bleeding, and sometimes temporary insanity."

"I **knew** viagra was made from Malboros!" Seth shouted, causing most of the class to roar with laughter. Seth and his two friends, Sevial and Xak, had become infamous within the Garden as pranksters, and generally for being disrespectful. They were good fighters, though.

"Thank you, Seth." Quistis replied sarcastically. "Now, back to the lesson. Malboro tissue is slightly flammable."

0000000000

"Hideo, can I talk to you?" Quistis asked without turning her head as the young Estharian was about to walk out of the class. The class had just been dismissed, and Hideo had a lesson with Malak to attend.

"Yes, Instructor?" He asked after stepping in front of her desk.

"You signed up for SeeD candidacy. You do realize that less than five percent of students who try out for SeeD during their first year actually succeed?"

"Yes, ma'am, I realize this. I still want to try, though."

She took her glasses off. "Well then, one of the prerequisites is to obtain your own GF. You know where the list of nearby GFs are, so I'll be expecting you to choose which one you'll go after by the end of the day."

"Yes, ma'am." He answered, then left the room.

An hour later, his private lesson with Malak was wrapping up, Hideo was finishing up his set. Standing up on one leg, he swept his sword across in front of him, then stepped his hanging leg down away from where his sword was swinging. Then, with the flick of the wrist, he spun his sword around, and went from leaning heavily on one leg to the other, stabbing his sword out with one hand, and twisting it 180 degrees to open up the wound.

"Remember, don't twist until you're almost fully extended." Malak instructed.

"Yes, sir." Hideo answered meekly, then finished the set up.

"I hear you are to obtain your own GF." Malak stated. The weapons master had been one of the first instructors at the Garden, training many of the first SeeDs. He was tall, broad shouldered, had dark brown skin and a shaved smooth head.

"Yes, though I'm not sure which one to go after." He answered.

"Do your blocking set." Malak instructed, then pulled out his boken, a katana shaped piece of ebony, and started striking at Hideo, strikes that would be blocked by the moves in the set. After the first few strikes were averted, Malak quickly changed his tempo, attacking with a broken, unpredictable rhythm, and varying speeds of attack. By the time Hideo had finished the set, he had been struck five out of eighteen attempts. Malak looked at Hideo with an evaluating eye.

After a few seconds, Malak said, "You react too quickly."

"Huh?"

"A block executed too quickly is just as bad as a block executed too late. The same goes for offense. You need to slow down, be methodical." He readied his boken. "Attack me as fast as you can."

Hideo gripped his sword. "You sure you don't want to use your steel sword?"

"I'm sure."

Hideo then ran forward and started a series of attacks, throwing each one recklessly fast. Malak barely moved. Each attack was deflected with a slow, simple motion. It ended when Hideo over extended a thrust, lost balance, and found the Weapons Master's boken pressed against his throat.

"The same goes for offense." Malak repeated.

Hideo backed off, and sheathed his sword at his waist.

"I think the best GF for you is Ixion. You're not the strongest of my students, but you're definitely the quickest. Even when doing techniques properly, you're one of the fastest of the SeeD candidates I'm training. I think learning how to fight one faster than you will do you much good."

"I'll think about it." Hideo replied.

"Then you are dismissed." Malak said. Hideo saluted, then left to wash up.

0000000000

The next afternoon, Hideo met Instructor Trepe at the front gate, and they set off for the northern Balamb Mountain Range. The roaming Bug Bites and occasional Glacial Eye kept things from getting boring in the, otherwise, uneventful trek. The entire time, Quistis never said a word, and since coming to the Garden, Hideo found himself becoming less social than usual, though his previous social life was lacking then. Almost two decades have passed since Adel's reign, Esthar as a country hasn't harmed a fly since, and yet no one seemed to think any differently of his homeland.

Not really paying attention to their surroundings, Hideo was slightly surprised when he noticed the ground suddenly getting darker. He looked up and notice dark thunder heads looming above them. They were on the mountain foot-hills. The mountain range created a weather shield from the Northern Zephyrs Jet Stream, giving the island mild weather.

"_Looks like Ixion is home."_ Hideo thought, looking at those raging black clouds. They soon found the trail, marked with two small flags with the Garden crests on them, indicating both property of Balamb Garden, and the start of the test.

"Hideo," Quistis said, slightly startling Hideo by breaking her silence so suddenly, "I trust you've studied the topography of this trail, and the reports of Ixion himself?"

Hideo nodded.

"Then pick a time limit for yourself, as an additional test to show you understand the extent of your own abilities. You must complete the test within this time, yet the less time you have left, the higher your score will be."

Hideo looked back at the trail. It was about a mile vertically, the trail itself was about three miles. He could run a mile in five minutes, that would be fifteen minutes if the trail were straight, double that to factor in the incline, increase that some to factor in monsters, and Ixion himself.

"I'd say one hour." He answered.

She pressed a few buttons on her wrist watch. "One hour it is." She looked up at him. "Time starts as soon as you walk past those flags."

Hideo turned around and looked at the trail. Even though he had only been at the Garden for a few months, he knew he couldn't afford to wait another quarter for a SeeD exam. Even if it did result in a lower score, he couldn't take any chances. Besides, it wasn't his choice to come to the Garden in the first place.

He took a deep breath, and said, "I'm ready."

Quistis stepped next to him. "I'll accompany you along the way, but you'll have to face Ixion alone."

Hideo stepped forward, and gradually built up to a jog up by the time he passed the flags. The timer was running.

0000000000

"_Who designed this path?"_ Hideo thought as he inched his way to the side, chest and stomach scraping against the bare rock as he and Quistis walked along a path that protruded just inches from the cliff wall. He constantly chided himself for thinking only in distance and incline, believing he could go at a run the entire length.

When they got out from the narrow walkway and onto a path wide enough for them to walk to the top of the cliff, they had just wasted fifteen minutes crossing one hundred yards. Hideo redoubled his efforts to make it to the summit, where the thunder GF resided; Quistis was struggling to keep up.

Hideo was running out of breath, yet that didn't stop him. Suddenly, what looked like a small boulder up the path unfolded itself, revealing what looked like an armadillo. It then rolled back up, and started rolling down the trail.

Hideo brought his hand up and, relying purely on instinctive timing, shot a _Fira_ spell, hitting the ground just an instant before the Raldo rolled over it. The explosion blasted the monster dozens of feet into the air, well over Hideo's head, but it's momentum carried it clear off the cliff side, leading to a long fall.

Hideo continued along, not caring to see what happened to the unfortunate beast.

Right about when Hideo started considering stopping to catch his breath, he ran around a large boulder and saw the summit, a hundred yards up the path. He allowed himself a few seconds to get some air back in his blood, then continued up the trail.

The summit itself was actually man-made, it resembled the top of a huge castle tower, with dragon teeth walls made out of stone bricks bordering the edges. Some sections of the walls were collapsed, due to the elements. The central area was about a hundred feet across, all of it made out of closely fitting stone brick. Just one large, round floor.

"_An arena."_ Hideo noted with mild interest. Other than the continuous roaring of the storm clouds not even a hundred feet above his head, all seemed peaceful.

"Come out, Ixion." Hideo called out.

After a few flashes, several lightning bolts shot down, striking the central area of the arena, sending a shower of sparks as Ixion appeared, blue lightning bolts crackling along his body.

A unicorn larger than a draft horse with a wicked, zigzag bladed horn, and a thick, silvery mane adorning it's neck. It buckled up on it's hind legs, kicked it's front legs a few times, then landed with enough force that Hideo felt it all the way in his chest.

Then, Ixion charged. Hideo quickly cast _Triple_ on himself as he rolled to the side at the last second, letting the silvery stallion pass him by. As he rolled onto his feet, he quickly turned around and shot off a triad of _Fire_ spells. Each hit the unicorn like a hammer, making him stagger back a bit, but otherwise didn't faze him.

Hideo quickly slid his sword back in it's sheath, pulled out his .45 pistols from their breast holsters, and began firing. He did not aim for the head or the heart, or any major organs or arteries. Guardian Forces didn't have blood flow, being neither living nor undead. Instead, he shot the stallion's haunches, hoping that would slow it down.

Ixion then jumped forward, evading Hideo's fire. As soon as it's hind legs touched stone floor, it turned and jumped again, moving more like a cheetah. It zigzagged back and forth towards Hideo, too fast for him to follow with his guns.

At the last leap, Hideo dropped his guns and pulled out his sword to deflect the beast's bladed horn before it could skewer him. Using the deflection, Hideo stepped in closer to strike at the neck, but the Lightning GF recovered fast enough to slam his head into Hideo's side. Immediately after, he charged forward, using it's front shoulder to knock the Estharian to the side.

Rolling to recover from his fall, Hideo decided to go on the offensive. He leapt at the stallion, going low for a horizontal cut to the legs. The beast reared back onto it's hind legs like Hideo expected, and he cast _Blizzard_ at the ground under the GF. A blue chunk of ice fired off from his outstretched hand, leaving a comet like trail behind. It struck the ground and dispersed to ice, covering a ten by ten foot area.

Hideo stepped back, only to step forward again to swing at the GF, making it back up more onto the ice covered ground. It's hooves started slipping on the ice, and Hideo went for the opening.

He swung his sword at the GF's horn, knock it's head to the side, and he lunged forward to imbed his sword deep into the stallion's shoulder. He didn't expect Ixion to swing it's long neck back and knock him away, leaving his sword sticking out of the GF.

He did a kick-up back onto his feet, and saw lightning running up and down the length of Ixion's horn. It's smooth, callused hooves were still slipping on the ice as it tried to get off, but the lightning on it's horn was rapidly growing.

Hideo quickly cast a _Shell_ around him just before multi-twined lightning bolt fired from the GF's horn. The bolt slammed into the shield, the _Shell_ quickly dissipating much of the energy. But the spell persisted, and Hideo couldn't hold it up long enough. The _Shell_ spell evaporated, and the lightning bolt slammed into Hideo, sending him flying back across the ground, stopped twenty feet short of the edge of the summit.

He laid there in a fetal position for a few seconds as the pain faded. He slowly got back onto his hands and feet, his muscles stiff as wood. The clicking of hooves brought his mind back to his opponent as the Lightning GF charged at him, now free from the icy ground.

Hideo jumped to the side, and Ixion dug it's hooves into the ground to stop right next to the Estharian. An instant later, the GF lowered it's head and swung it's bladed horn diagonally up. Hideo stumbled back to avoid the horn's arc, and landed on his back. The GF shuffled forward and swung it's head down, bringing it's horn to bare on Hideo. The Estharian rolled to the side hastily, and rolled again as the GF followed up on it's attack by trying to stomp it's front hooves on Hideo.

He continued to rolled around the GF as it tried to stomp on him. He realized this was getting nowhere, and he lifted his legs to his chest and kicked Ixion in the jawbone. Using the momentum of lifting his legs, he rolled backward onto his feet and sprang forward, reaching for his sword. The GF spun in place, turning the side with the sword in it away from Hideo. The Estharian ducked down and rolled under the stallion.

Ixion reacted instantly by jumping and spinning onto it's front legs, facing away from it's opponent, and kicking Hideo in the chest with it's hind hooves.

Shocking pain raced through Hideo as the blow cracked his sternum. He flew back and crashed into the dragon tooth wall. His body broke through the brittle stone, but it slowed him enough to fall into the skeleton of a tree growing a few yards down from the summit. Acting out of whatever reflexes he could muster in his pain wracked mind, he reached out and grabbed a thick branch, halting his otherwise fatal plunge.

He was on the brink of blacking out, as the blow knocked the wind out of him, and he couldn't breathe back in. On instinct, he cast his lone _Cura_ spell on himself, healing his chest enough so he could breathe in a much needed breath. He grabbed onto the branch with his other hand and took a few more breaths.

_Think, Hideo!_ The GF was faster than him in both speed and reflexes, and despite it's size, it was also more agile. More importantly, with his sword and guns gone, he had nothing but his magic and his wits. Unless he got incredibly lucky, he needed to use his head to win this fight. He had to get his sword back, he had no magic strong enough to overpower this creature.

Taking a few more breaths, he cast _cure_ on himself once more to help relieve any sore muscles he couldn't afford to have, then formed a _Reflect_ spell in front of him. He hoisted himself onto the branch, and jumped back onto the summit, where Ixion was waiting for him.

Hideo ran to the right, starting a wide circle around the GF. Ixion moved to intercept his path, and Hideo moved the other way, forming a _Fire_ spell in his hand, and threw it at his adversary. The stallion hopped nimbly to the side as the fireball flew past it, and lightning bolts gathered on it's horn again. Hideo stopped and accessed his spell stock as the multi-twined lightning fired at him. The bolts bounced off his _Reflect_ spell, splitting off in several directions, some hitting the ground in front of him, kicking up dirt and pieces of stone.

Out of the dust flew a _Fira_ spell. The large fireball hit Ixion square in the chest, burning it's hair and sending it stumbling back. Hideo jumped forward through the flames, and grabbed a hold of his sword. He pulled it out and swung it at Ixion's blade, knocking it's head away from him. Using the momentum from the strike, he continued to spin around fully, with his sword above his head, and swung it down, cutting through the stallion GF's mane and slicing cleanly through it's neck.

The clouds surrounding the summit suddenly bounced away from Hideo and the GF, and shrank back, with a pulse similar to a heartbeat. The head of the GF never touched the ground, but merely hovered there, body and head in suspended animation. There was no blood, just pink flesh and vertebrae exposed.

Hideo felt a sense of foreboding surround him. Never in his life had he experienced such a silence, even the roar of the storm was gone.

"You, young one, are worthy of my strength." A hollow voice said.

Small electrical bolts fired off between the GF's head and body, then more appeared, and yet more again as the two pieces came out of suspension and reconnected. A rough sphere of lightning surrounded the GF, throwing Hideo back, and the space inside that sphere warped as Ixion's form changed. He got smaller and smaller, more stubby like a pony, and more still as it's body became a floating sphere.

That sphere hung there, lightning cackling across it's surface. "Accept my power, young one." The sphere then floated over to him. Hideo reached out, and grabbed the sphere, and it dissolved into his flesh.

He breathed in, taking in the sensation of this new GF, familiarizing himself with it's power.

He broke from his reverie when he heard as light clapping coming from the edge of the arena. Quistis Trepe was walking towards him. "Good. Not everyone succeeds on their first try, though you had a pretty close call there."

Hideo scoffed at the understatement.

Quistis then looked at her watch. "Six minutes, thirteen seconds left. That's good for a score of eighty-four. Congratulations, Hideo Masters, you've passed."

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It was the near the end of the twilight period, when the stars started to completely fill the sky, Hideo and Quistis were just returning to the Garden. The entire trip back, Quistis preferred taking the front line whenever they encountered any monsters. "_Reward for a job well done._" Quistis told him.

When they got through the Front Gate, Quistis stopped her student. "Hideo, you should see Doctor Kadowaki. Unless you know the human anatomy very well, curative magic won't completely heal you."

"Sure." Hideo replied, slightly breathless. He wouldn't be surprised if Quistis noticed he was having trouble breathing again.

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It had been a month since he acquired his own GF, and Hideo was having trouble sleeping. He never did sleep well, but the Garden was changing him. He had found something of a friend in Delta, and his roommate wasn't a bad conversationalist. Despite the fact that most of the students politely avoided him because of his nationality, it became one of the few places he had ever felt safe, a rare haven for him. He normally had dreamless sleep, due to the accumulative exhaustion of constantly watching his back, always expecting someone to attack him out of the blue or some law official recognizing him. As soon as he started feeling comfortable, safe, the nightmares returned. It was his past that haunted his sleep this night.

_His grip of the gun was sleek with sweat. He peeked around the corner of the dumpster, and saw the lookout there with his automatic pistol. He waited in the shadows of the dumpster until the look out turned his head the other way. As quickly as he could, Hideo pulled the knife out of his belt, and charged on his quiet, soft-soled shoes._

_As soon as the look out noticed the young street urchin out of the corner of his eye, the young sandy blond slashed deeply into the man's wrist, forcing him to drop the gun. He then grabbed a handful of the man's hair to hold his head still as he slit the man's throat, jugular, and carotid arteries. Hideo barely blinked as the blood pulsed out onto his face. This was what he was after, this was what his whole life meant on this night, and he was going to enjoy it._

_Grabbing the lookout's gun, he stepped into the nightclub, and the first person to greet him got Hideo's gun pressed right against the unshaven underside of his jaw to muffle the guns report as the bullet sprayed his brains against the ceiling. Two down, not even a sound. Even if the whole goddamn nightclub knew he was coming, he'll die while gutting every one of them!_

_Soon, another one fell, then another, and another. The legendary Demon Chimeras were falling like rain in his blood lust._

_After the last one, the leader of the gang, fell to his knees begging for mercy, Hideo aimed the automatic pistol at the man's face, and unloaded the entire 35 round clip, shredding the man's head._

End of Chapter Two.

Author's note: Let me guess, that last part was a little graphic, right? Well, why do you think he was having nightmares about it then? Anyways, if you're wondering about the "automatic pistol", there was one in _The Matrix: Reloaded_, and I believe there was one in Syphon Filter.

Also, while I am a martial artist myself, it's just too damn hard to write the real stuff in text, so what you'll get is the watered down "Hollywoodized" kind of action.


	4. The Fateful Test

Disclaimer: Yeah, yeah. I own Hideo and Delta, nothing else.

Author's note: in this story, even cadets can use higher level magic, though it's more difficult for them to acquire it and they tend to have far fewer stock than most SeeDs.

**Chapter Three: The Fateful Test**.

Soft rain batted against Hideo's dorm window. It was past midnight, yet he knew he had to finish this. Time was running out.

He took a deep breath to calm himself before typing in a rapid series of imputed code into the holographic terminal. It was a top of the line holographitron portocomputer, not even available to the public yet. It, and the Fly Hideo was reprogramming, were part of the few possessions he brought with him to the Garden from Esthar. It looked like an aluminum armguard, but it was actually a computer that created a holographic interface.

The Fly, on the other hand was shoddy as far as looks went. It was little more than a steel rectangle with a small antenna, about the size of a pack of cigarettes. It didn't look like much, but it was one of the best hacking devices in Esthar. Mere possession was grounds for years in prison.

Hideo was trying to better the Worm he programmed into it. Hacking was how he got by in Esthar after he got out of the slums. He could still hear his mentor Liam's voice, lecturing him on tricks and codes, telling him how fast he was learning.

The sandy blond Estharian sighed and leaned back against the wall. Three and a half months and he still wasn't successful. None of the available terminals had access to Headmaster Kramer's personal computer, meaning he'd have to be physically there at the mainframe itself for the Fly to work it's magic. The Fly would have to be within two inches of the machine. If he didn't finish this soon, _they_ sure as hell wouldn't be pleased. That's why he was working so feverishly tonight, he would have to do something drastic soon to get to that computer.

Clearing his head, he continued typing into the holographic terminal.

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The next day, Hideo was in the Training Center sparing with Delta. The first time they sparred, Hideo learned just how effective 'being trained since childhood by the best money could buy' really was, and he was beaten miserably several times. He had finally asked what she meant by 'the best money could buy', and she hesitantly answered that her family was part of the Dollet aristocracy. Knowing his short private lessons with Malek wasn't going to be enough to pass the SeeD Test, he talked her into becoming his sparring partner, and thus his first friend in the Garden.

Hideo went in for a stab, but Delta deflected it with her left hook sword, then hooked her right one around it to lock it into place. With a quick step backward, she turned her hips to pull Hideo off balance, and pressed the bladed crescent moon hand guard of her right hook sword against his neck.

"That's five to two now, Hideo." She said, triumphantly.

"Not again." Hideo grumbled lightly. Suddenly, Delta threw her grip of Hideo's sword over her head and to the side in an attempt to throw him off balance. He wasn't going to be caught unprepared for that move THREE times, so he yielded to the action, and used the momentum to sweep at Delta's leading leg.

As expected, she lifted her leg into a crane stance, but was caught unprepared when Hideo turned and rammed into her, pinning her to the ground underneath him.

"Damn it!" Delta said with a laugh. Hideo looked her in the eyes. She was a beautiful woman, chocolate colored hair, green eyes, and an almost perfect, slender body. Hideo wasn't used to such non-violent contact as this.

"**Attention: all SeeD Candidates are to report to the First Floor Lobby in thirty minutes in uniform. This is not a drill."** The intercom blared.

As the person on the intercom repeated himself, Hideo looked down at Delta, and quickly got off her. _"Real smooth, ya dumb ass!"_ He berated himself.

Delta did a kick-up, and helped Hideo get back on his feet before they raced back to the Dorms.

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Twenty-five minutes later, Hideo met up with Delta at the lobby. In the last year, they changed the dress code to where female Garden student's could wear pants.

Everyone stood at attention when Headmaster Cid, Commander Leonhart, and Zell Dincht, who was cracking his knuckles, walked out of the elevator.

"Everyone," the Headmaster address the crowd, "this mission will involve twenty members from squads A through E. You will be accompanied by twelve SeeD members. Should you fail, they will get the job done, they always do." After that, Cid gave a little speech about 'the Pride of Balamb Garden', and so on. After he was finished, Commander Leonhart stepped forward.

"As the Headmaster said, there will be five groups, each with four members." He then called out four names. "You will be Squad A." He called out four more. "You will be Squad B. Hideo Masters, Marshal Kinrath, Delta Locke, and Keado Markos, you're Squad C." He finished the other squads assignments. "Everyone will proceed to the Ragnarok. Left FACE!"

Everyone turned to the left.

"Forward, MARCH!" Everyone marched forward towards the Quad, where a landing pad had been installed for the Estharian spacecraft.

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Ten minutes after they got airborne, the different squads were each in turn brought into the passenger compartment, where viewing screens had been installed on the back of the seats, to be given the briefing on their assignments.

Finally, it was Squad C's turn. Commander Leonhart started speaking as soon as they were all seated. "Our client for this mission is the Republic of Galbadia." A topographical image of Deling City appeared on the screen. "Twelve hours ago, the city was invaded by an army of monsters, all acting in groups. These are not just random acts, they are moving in calculated attacks, and working together. The Galbadian military forces were able to fortify the Presidential Residence, but they can't spare any to wipe out the groups that are elsewhere."

The commander pressed a button on the console under the screen, changing the image to show streets and buildings. "We have yet to identify any specific target. If you spot anything unusual, report it in immediately!"

Xu walked down the isle, handing out head set communicators. "There are two frequencies to your communicators." Squall continued. "The first is your squadron frequency, use it to communicate if you're split up. The second frequency is Squad E's frequency. They are the intelligence gathering team, and they can communicate with the individual squadrons. Report to them your position, where you see the enemy, and where you and the enemy are going whenever you can."

Commander Leonhart continued. "Defeating the individual groups of monsters quickly and efficiently is your mission, use whatever means you need to get the job done, within mission parameters. Squads A, B, and D will be taking different sectors of the city, with Squad E to take up camp in the Presidential Residence and act in place of intelligence. If you need assistance, report to them to relay a message to one of the other Squads. You'll be expected to render assistance to other squadrons as well. If you discover where or how the monsters are infiltrating the city, report it immediately. Any questions?"

Keado raised his hand. "Sir, what do you mean the monsters are working together? Isn't that a little strange?"

"So far, the only theory as to how this is possible is that they are somehow being controlled by a another party." Xu answered.

Squall continued. "Your mission parameters are to cause as little property damage as possible, do whatever necessary to protect the citizenry, and to follow your orders should they change. Marshal Kinrath, you're the squad leader. Good luck, you are all dismissed."

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Two hours later, the five teams were all in the docking area. The adrenaline in the cadets' blood was starting to thin out, several of them were yawning.

Marshal was the senior Garden student among them, sixteen years old, and a Garden student for ten years. He was tall and slender with a military cut to his light blond hair.

Keado was slumped against the wall with his scoped bayonet propped up. He was the eldest amongst them, eighteen years of age. In sharp contrast to Marshal, he was the same height as Hideo, broad shouldered, long black hair that hung in spike in front of his face, with no qualms about grease on his face or going unshaven, and he always had a stress bullet in his mouth. Numerous jokes were made due to the stress bullet, but Keado never paid any attention to them.

Suddenly, the intercom buzzed. **"We are T-minus three minutes from the landing zone. Repeat, T-minus three minutes."**

No one in the room were yawning anymore. The senior Garden students looked, for the most part, like they were soldiers in a war film, ready to fight full of valor. The rest of the student, on the other hand, were anxious and nervous.

Hideo took a deep breath, which proved difficult due to how tense he was. He tried to take his mind away from the upcoming battles by calculating how fast the Ragnarok must have been flying to get to Deling City in this much time based off estimations of distance.

"**T-minus sixty seconds."** The intercom buzzed, startling a few of the students.

Hideo took a deep breath, trying to feel the GFs inside of him, feeling their energies coursing through him. He could feel them, a warmth inside his blood with an electric pulse in synch with his own heartbeat. The sharpness and focus of the thunder GF Ixion, and the calm serenity of the water GF, Krakken.

He looked over to Delta, next to him holding onto the balance bar on the wall, to find her looking at him as well. He remembered when he first saw her, nearly bursting with excitement. Now she was in a space ship, in a blue Balamb Garden uniform, flying onward to battle, and scared.

"_Don't worry, I'll protect you."_ Hideo silently promised.

"Look sharp, people!" Marshal shouted as the ship started to rock from it's decent, though he did not sound half as confident as he was trying to be.

Every passing second felt like minutes as the fear welled up within Hideo. He was going into a real battlefield.

Finally, with a lurch and a thud, the Ragnarok landed, and the hanger bay opened, shining brightly against the poor lighting.

"Squad A, engage!" The SeeD supervisor commanded. The ordered group of cadets ran towards the exit.

As soon as the ramp was clear, the SeeD supervisor continued. "Squad B, engage!"

Hideo felt sweat trickle down his temples. He realized, with a deep feeling of dread, that now there was no chance of turning back, there was only the option of going forward.

"Squad C, engage!" As soon as those words were said, all fear within him vanished. All that remained was his mission.

Marshal took the lead, brandishing his katana, followed by Delta, Hideo, and Keado. They had landed a hundred meters from the gates leading into Deling City. "Move out!" Marshal ordered.

They closed the gap within a minute, running past the high walls that surrounded the city. Squad A went west bound on Jensen Court, Squad B went north on Deling Avenue, straight into the heart of the city. Squad C was to go east bound on Jensen Court.

The city was ripe with the songs of chaos, with sirens for instruments, gunshots as vocals, and explosions for percussion. The urban parts of the city were covered in smoke, painted red by the numerous fires.

As they ran across the street, passing crushed, over-turned cars and mutilated people, they saw their first quarry. Two chimera's and a death claw. The chimera's were fighting over a corpse, treating it like a rag doll, while the death claw was trying to get a scared senseless man out of his blue car. In unison, all three monsters turned from what they were doing, and approached the Garden students.

Keado stopped and kneeled down to steady his sniper rifle bayonet. He got off two shots before the monsters got too close, the first in the leading chimera's dominate head, the second in the death claw's haunch.

Repositioning his hands so he was holding his bayonet like a quarterstaff, Keado rolled out of the way as the remaining chimera jumped at him. As soon as he got back on his feet, he swung the butt of his gun at the monster's hind leg's knee, hearing the tendons snaps. The chimera roared in pain, allowing an ample distraction for Marshal to cast _blizzara_ on the monster's heads, turning them all to ice.

At that time, Hideo and Delta were handling the death claw. Delta deflected the monster's top left spike, then hooked her other sword around it, sinking the hooks into the bone. With the power coming from her turning her hips, she pulled the large monster forward, just like she had done to Hideo earlier that day. In that moment of unbalance, Hideo rushed in, too close for the long claws to pierce him, and ran his blade all the way through the creature and twisted it. After a few seconds of the death claw convulsing, he pulled his sword out and jumped away so the monster wouldn't crush him as it died.

Marshal ran over to the car, and told the man that the way to the exit of the city was clear, and that SeeDs were there to protect him. Not waiting to see what the man did, he marched forward. As soon as they started moving on, Hideo shot a _fire_ spell at the chimera popsicle, turning the front half of it's body into shattered ice.

As they continued on, they came close to the sounds of destruction; gun fire and the breaking of wood and glass came just around the corner. Four burning cars blocked the way.

They turned around and got into an alleyway, then climbed a fire escape to the roof. Marshal quickly got to the edge, followed by the others to survey the site. One car was upside down and on fire. A man was keeping two thrustaevis's away from his wife and small child with a two-by-four on the other side of the street. Another car was turned over by an ochu, and a couple of armadodo's were on top, apparently trying to crush it in some way by jumping up and down on their tiny legs.

"Okay…" Marshal said, looking like he was evaluating the situation. "Okay, we go after the thrustaevises first, then the ochu, then the armadodos. Remember, fast and efficient." He stepped up to the edge.

"Wait!" Hideo said, grabbing the squad captain by the arm. "That the only tactic you can come up with?"

"What? Can you do better?" Marshal challenged angrily.

Hideo looked back at the situation. "Yeah. Keado, throw a flash-bang at the thrustaevises, and take one out while they're stunned, I'll take out the other. Marshal and Delta, you jump right to the armadodo's, get them off the car. And throw a frag grenade into the ochu's mouth when you get the opportunity."

Marshal looked back at him with a stern expression, as if evaluating the plan's worth. Or maybe he was angry that he, the captain, didn't think it up himself like he was supposed to.

"On your orders, of course." Hideo followed up.

Marshal's face darkened. "We'll go with that plan."

Holding his bayonet against his shoulder, Keado pulled a flash-bang grenade off his belt, and pulled the pin out with his teeth while holding the clip on. "Just give the word." He said simply.

Marshal looked back at the group. "Execute."

Keado threw the stun grenade, and the squad members looked away while covering their ears. The grenade landed near the thrustaevises, and after a second, it exploded, sending off a blinding flash with an ear shattering boom, disorienting the two flying monsters enough for them to crash on the ground.

Hideo jumped off the ledge, flying a good fifteen feet away from the building before hitting the ground, where he rolled to break his fall. As soon as he pulled Lunar Edge out of it's sheath, a gunshot went off, blowing a hole the size of a fist through one of the thrustaevises. The Estharian held the other one to the ground under his foot before running it through.

The man dropped the two-by-four, apparently formerly a ceiling beam, and heaved a sigh of relief.

Hideo stepped up to the nearby building, and with the added strength his GFs gave him, kicked the reinforced locked door open. "Take your family and barricade yourselves in there!" They didn't waste any time.

Suddenly, Hideo felt a tingling. A sense of both tugging and pulling from a very distinct angle. He knew this feeling from his training with GF. Immediately, he turned around swinging his sword, right before hearing Marshal and Delta shout his name. By mere luck, or subconscious guidance by the GFs, his sword pierced through the pad of the ochu's right tentacle's paw. A second later, the monster's left tentacle connecting solidly with his shoulder.

His Garden trained reflexes would've made him roll back onto his feet if only he wasn't blinded by pain at the moment. The ochu's blow dislocating his shoulder. Instead, he skidded ten feet across the pavement.

As Hideo got onto his knees, he saw the ochu lumbering towards him, mouth wide open, facing away from the Estharian's teammates. And he didn't have any grenades on him. Hideo then noticed his sword was still imbedded in it's paw.

"_Might as well use one now."_ He reasoned, though he had hoped to save them for later. He lifted his good arm up, and cast a _Flare_ spell into the monster's gaping maw. Hideo felt the explosions report in his chest as pieces of the ochu's head flew away from it's stump of a body.

He looked over and saw Delta manage to get one of her swords hooked into the underside of an armadodo, and pull it onto it's back, where Marshal drove his katana into it's soft underbelly. Hideo gave them a thumbs up, then put his foot on the dead ochu's right paw and pulled his sword out.

Keado landed softly on the ground and walked over to him, looking at his teammate's shoulder "Dislocated?" He asked.

"Yeah." Hideo answered.

Keado put his bayonet on the ground before carefully feeling Hideo's arm. He then pulled a wood block wrapped in twine out of his pocket. "You'll want this."

Hideo held it, and clenched it in his teeth. He then nodded to Keado. His teeth sank deep into the twine as Keado popped his arm. As he bent over groaning, Keado cast _cure_ on his shoulder to reduce the inflammation. Delta cast _cura _as soon as she got to him.

Hideo slowly swung his arm in large circles, trying to work the soreness out. He grabbed the twine wrapped block and offered it back to Keado. He took one look at it before saying, "Keep it."

Static then filled their head communicators. "Squad C, report position."

Marshal pressed a finger to the headset. "Squad E, this is Squad C captain. We are at…half a block north from Jensen Court and Benson Lane."

"You'll have to do. Report to the Presidential Residence on the double! We need backup! Two blocks north, then take a left all the way to the Grand Archway, then follow the road north."

"Move out!" Marshal commanded.

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Along the way, Hideo noticed by looking between the buildings and through the alleyways that several monster groups were going opposite their vector. _"Gotta follow orders!"_ He thought, resisting the urge to go after them. A few minutes later, he noticed the groups were running along side his squad, easily outrunning them.

He took note of the street names, and estimated how many blocks they had run before the monster groups switched course.

Within ten minutes of receiving the order, they arrived at the Presidential Residence, where they witnessed a swarm of nearly a hundred monsters outside the mansion.

Keado passed a few frag grenades to his teammates. As soon as they were in range, they all let loose. The explosions helped thin out the crowd, but Delta used one of her few _ultima_ spells, clearing out a huge portion of the monsters, sending many of them flying over the student's heads.

Just before they could dive into the thick of the horde, Delta ran out in front. She took her double hook swords and hooked them together, so that she could swing the bladed crescent moon hand-guard in a wide arc. She then cast _fire_ on the hilt of the outside sword, turning the thin rope covering ablaze. The swinging fire caused the monsters to hesitate to approach them. The squad stayed behind her with their heads down as she swung the swords out, keeping the monsters at two arms length.

Finally, they made it to the gate, where they climbed the vertical poles as fast as they could before the monsters snapped at their heels.

As Hideo was swinging over, he noticed three groups of anacondaurs, blitzes, and Raldos moving _past_ the Presidential Residence. The horde of monsters were so thick, no one would have seen them! Hideo quickly landed on the ground, and pulled out his .45 pistols, and started firing through the gates and into the crowds, along with the remaining Galbadian forces and Squad E.

"Fasties!" One of the soldiers cried out. Hideo looked up, and saw several fastitocalons flying over the gates. Redirecting his aim, he started firing at the flying sharks.

Suddenly, Hideo felt fingers wrap around his ankle, and with a sharp pull, he fell on his back.

"We've got creeps!" Delta shouted.

Marshal ran over the Hideo, and stabbed his katana through the flat, shadow like creature, nailing it to the ground. Hideo kicked up, and spent the last remaining bullets he had into the few creeps that came in under the gates.

"We got them!" A soldier from the back of the ranks yelled, as if he were trying to warn them.

A member of Squad E grabbed Hideo and pulled him hard to the side. Suddenly, the sounds of machine guns spewing fire filled the air. Covering his ear, Hideo looked back and saw two antiquated hand-cranked copper gatling guns firing into the horde of monsters. It was over in a minute.

"Were did you get those relics?" Keado asked.

"We don't keep heavy artillery here in the Presidential Residence." Said a middle aged soldier, who's insignia showed him to be of high rank. "But these were display pieces in the museum. Thank the heavens they still work."

Hideo didn't waste any time. "Sir, are you the officer in charge here?"

"Yes, I am. Chief of Urban Development, Colonel Two Star Jaden Kendal."

"Colonel, I need to talk to you and the captain of Squad E. I think I noticed something out there that could prove vital."

Without a word or any other reaction, the colonel signaled for the Garden student to follow him into the nearby tent, where two SeeDs from Squad E and Marshal were studying a map.

"Pardon me," Kendal said, "but this cadet here claims to have information that could be important."

"And you were going to tell me this when?" Marshal asked, annoyed.

"I wasn't going to give this report without you, sir." Hideo told his captain, then addressed the main group. "Do you know how the monsters are getting in the city yet?"

"No, we're still trying to figure that out."

"Can I see that map?"

One of the SeeDs moved, allowing Hideo a good view of the expansive map, displaying building shapes and sizes, with writing for the businesses and street names. After a minute of searching, Hideo found the streets he was looking for. "I noticed about half a dozen monster groups coming from this district. What's around there?"

Kendal leaned over the map. "There, the East Central Park? A couple of arcades, there's a storage shop, but they could barely contain a behemoth cub, let alone hundreds of monsters. Nothing I can think of that would be a potential subterranean insertion point, and we have extensively scanned the sewer system. Nothing."

"Hey." One of the SeeDs called out, looking at another map. "This may just be a coincidence, but topographically, that area is the lowest spot in all of Deling."

"What?" Kendal asked.

"Deling City's not flat?" Marshal asked.

"No." Kendal answered. "When the city was built, the area was much larger than any other cities at the time, so they didn't bother to mow down the big hills or fill in the dips." He went quiet after that, deep in thought.

Finally, he turned to the door. "Lieutenant." He called out. A subordinate showed up in the tent a second later. "I want you to go through the archives, find sewer maps that are at least twenty years old."

The lieutenant saluted, then quickly left.

"Mind filling us in on what this is about, sir?" Marshal asked.

"Because of the decreased demand on military funds when the Sorceress War ended, Deling City had the money to install a new sewer system, but I don't believe it replaced the old one. It's possible that these monsters are entering from the old sewer system. I'm pretty sure it worked on a series of underground aqueducts, using gravity to drive the water out, and directing it to the ocean, less than a mile from the city. As such, they should be long cleared out by now."

"And you think they're using these aqueducts?" Hideo asked.

"It's just a theory." Kendal replied. "I don't even know if these aqueducts are big enough for a person to travel through, let alone monsters. But it would make sense that one of the main aqueducts would start at Deling's lowest point, since they run off of gravity."

"Sir, I also noticed another thing." Hideo mentioned. They gave him back their attention. "I saw a few larger groups of monsters running right past the Presidential Residence. They didn't even slow down."

Kendal looked confused. "You mean the Presidential Residence wasn't their target?"

"It makes sense." Squad E's captain said. "If overrunning us was their main objective, they would've had every unit biting at our heels. Yet everything we've seen so far has indicated this is all one big coordinated attack."

Kendal thought about that. "So they're trying to keep us in here while they tear the city apart?"

"Or they could be blinding us to what their true target is." Hideo mentioned. "Have you been keeping track of where the teams and military forces have intercepted the enemy units?"

Kendal looked a little confused. "Affirmative. Standard operating procedure."

"Can I look over those files? If they kept sending reinforcements to certain areas, that might clear things up."

"Wait a sec." Squad E's captain said. He grabbed a walkie-talkie, set it to a frequency, and spoke into it. "This is Squad E, report your current status."

The radio feed coming back was heavy with static and explosions. "Nothing's changed, thank you very much!" A voice yelled before cutting off.

"That was Squad B, they're currently here." The captain pointed to a spot about ten blocks away from the Presidential Residence. "They've been taking in constant barrages of attacks since they got there. It seems whatever's there, whoever's controlling the monsters wants to get to it."

"What _is_ there?" Marshal asked.

"I don't know. The maps states it's a rent-out complex."

"Manitech Corporations Headquarters." Kendal answered. "They've been renting out that complex for near ten years now."

"What's their field?" Hideo asked.

Kendal shrugged. "They don't go public about their research. It's energy related, as best I can tell. They are a privately funded corporation, after all."

Hideo looked back at the map. After a little thinking, he asked, "Do you know who funds them?"

The Colonel brought his hand to his chin. "Come to think about it, no. I never heard anything about who supported them."

At that moment, the lieutenant returned with large rolls of paper. "Sir, here are the maps you requested."

Kendal took the maps and dismissed the lieutenant before laying the maps out across the table. "Son of a bitch." He murmured after scanning it. "Kid, I think your theory's a keeper." He bent the map so that the area Hideo had pointed out was at the edge, with the same location on the other map right next to it. "That's the beginning of the main line for the sewer drainage system, and look what's still there now."

Hideo, Marshal, and Squad E's captain leaned over and saw what was labeled on the map. Old Sewer System Control Center, with "under renovation" written in parenthesis below.

"Colonel," Hideo spoke up, "you didn't get any distress calls from there before the attack happened, did you?"

Kendal shook his head. "We didn't get anything out of the ordinary before the strike started. And that building had been bought years ago. It's no longer government property."

Hideo sighed and stood up. "So captain, what do we do?"

Marshal stood up straight as well, not looking at anything in particular for a few moments before addressing Hideo. "We take out that building and collapse the tunnel under it."

Hideo coughed, obviously saying that his captain forgot something. Marshal just moved his eyes around, not catching what it was. The Estharian mouthed "chain of command", in hopes he'd catch on. It took several moments of silence before Marshal finally got it.

He turned to the Colonel. "That would be my suggestion for a plan of action. It's all up to you, of course."

"Well," the colonel said, "that building is right next to two apartment complexes, and most people are still inside their homes right now. And collapsing the aqueduct could destabilize the surrounding area. This map shows the aqueduct itself has to be at least twenty feet by twenty feet, who knows what that kind of sudden collapse would do."

"And let's not forget the possibility of hostages." Hideo mentioned. "We haven't proved yet that the owners of the property were involved in this attack."

"So does anyone have any _good_ ideas?" Marshal asked with annoyance.

Kendal and Squad E's captain started talking about setting up a perimeter around the building, but it was pointed out that they couldn't spare those kind of troops with all the monsters already in the city.

Ignoring them, Hideo looked at the old schematics. They reminded him of some of the old, dusty plans he used in his short stead as a liograt exterminator.

Liograts were worm like creatures, normally a little smaller than a typical woman's wrist, that fed off of and lived in cable lines. Not only did they ruin the lines, but they were freaking hard to catch. They could move through the lines at nearly twenty miles an hour when fully grown. Just about the only way to catch one was to…

"…Choke them off." Hideo whispered.

Marshal stopped his argument. "What was that?"

Hideo smiled. _"If you can't hack an alarm into not going off, then cut the alarm off from anything that would set it off."_ The old hackers saying went.

"We choke them off!" Hideo answered. "If we can't stop them from entering the city from the exit, close off the entrance! Instead of doing something about the Old Sewer System Control Center, take care of the their entrance into the drainage system itself!"

Kendal looked surprised. "Instead of collapsing the aqueduct here, collapse it just before it hits the ocean. And that way, they won't be able to send in any more, and those already in it will be trapped!"

"Hey!" Marshal addressed the Squad E captain. "Based on what we know, how much manpower will it take to collapse this tunnel?"

He looked at the schematics for a second. "It shouldn't take more than a couple people. A few detonators will easily take care of that tunnel. A single squad would be more than enough."

"Colonel, how far away from the city do the aqueducts end?" Hideo asked.

"Three quarters of a mile, give or take. They're about half a mile east of the city's shipping docks. They should be rather easy to find if they just went along the coast."

"So do you think this will work?" Marshal asked Hideo.

"I think it's better than what we're doing now."

"It's your call, Colonel." Marshal stated.

Kendal stood up tall, straightened out his uniform, and said, "The operation is a go."

End of Chapter Three

Author's Note: Due to many people saying the original chapter three's length was intimidating, I've decided to split it up into two. The next chapter will, technically, be the rest of this one. There, you'll find out Hideo's true agenda, and why he's in the Garden.


	5. Discoveries and Memories

Disclaimer: I don't own anything here except the direct events…god, I wish I owned more than that, then…I would probably sell it to someone anyways.

**Chapter Four: Discoveries and Memories**.

Thirty minutes after the planning was done, Squad C was on top of a building, an arcade apparently, across the street from the Old Sewer System Control Center, waiting for the word from Squad B. Squad E stayed at the Presidential Residence, Squad D took over Squad B's position fighting outside Manitech Headquarters. Squad A was the only unit still actively hunting the monsters within the city. Squad B volunteered to take on detonating the aqueduct. They were all anxious, Keado especially.

The Old Sewer System Control Center was a surprisingly unimposing site. It look like an aircraft hanger that had been converted into a factory. It was roughly forty feet high and eighty feet from side to side.

"Anyone got a cigarette?" Keado finally asked, breaking the silence.

"Don't smoke." Delta answered. Hideo said the same thing.

"This is the last place for this, Keado." Marshal said, irritated.

"Well I could use one right now." The sniper barked back.

"Bring that tone up to me again, and I'll put you in the Disciplinary Room so fast-" Marshal was cut off when the communicators suddenly filled with static, then voices emerged.

"This is Squad B…found the spot…there were some ships here, but…and a few high level spells did the tri…could almost see there tails between their legs as they fle…got the detonators in place, will blow in five, four, three…one." There was no faint boom heard at all, though the noise from the battle at Manitech Headquarters could still be heard at this distance and might have covered it up. It was probably a good idea that they relieved Squad B of their position there.

"Well that was a little anti-climatic." Delta mentioned. Not even half a second after she finished saying that, a tremor shook the building slightly.

The communicators came back on. "Wahoo, that was…pretty good explosion…mighta used a little too much…ships are haulin', but there's still some monsters left…be taken care of soon enough. Over and out."

"I guess that's our cue." Marshal said. "You two take this side. Keado and I will take the western entrance in thirty."

"Insertion method?" Hideo asked.

"Full breach." Marshal answered, simply.

The Estharian sighed, and extended his hand to Delta in a gentleman gesture. "Shall we?"

She took his hand, and they both jumped off the building, landing softly on the ground. They ran up to the truck entrance sized double doors to the building, taking up positions on either side of the human sized entrance ways placed on one of the larger doors.

Hideo sheathed his sword at his hip, and pulled out his guns. "One, two, THREE!" He kicked the door open, shattering it to splinters thanks to his GFs, and jumped in, rolling across the floor. As soon as he got to his feet, he felt a buzz in his head, and instinctively got low as a few bullets flew over him. He quickly jumped over a steel table, pulling it over with him to use as a shield. Taking one of the three flash bangs he borrowed from Keado, he pulled out the pin, and tossed it. Two seconds later, a deafening bang resounded, accompanied by a blinding flash. Instead of wasting his bullets, Hideo stood up and cast three _Thundara_ spells at the elevated platform where the men were shooting. The lightning bolts that shot out of his hand fanned out, hitting the people shooting at them, the surrounding tables, shelves, and then some electronic equipment, sending massive waves of sparks and burning papers flying everywhere.

Delta jumped through the door with a grenade at the ready.

There was nothing happening in the room, save the flying papers and crackling of circuits.

"Overkill much?" Delta asked.

"I think we just found some of the people who're coordinating these monsters." Hideo mentioned.

A quick look over of the inside didn't reveal anyone else, though there were plenty of places to hide. Beside the electronics and primitive mainframes that Hideo just fried (even primitive for Deling's level of technology), the building was a jungle of metal pipes and pumps. The old sewers were right below them, and just below that, the entrance to the aqueducts, where they expected to find a lot of monsters.

Then, another buzzing flashed through Hideo's mind. But this was different than what he felt moments ago, he didn't understand what the GFs were telling him. He saw a similar confused and worried look on Delta. Suddenly the buzzing intensified a hundred fold, and became near maddening. In a moment of confusion where the GFs inside Hideo took over, he grabbed Delta by the arm, and with a burst of speed he never had before, pulled her behind the steel table, and cast _Protect_ on the both of them moments before the world around them exploded.

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Marshal was angry. Not only was he, as a Squad Captain, not making many of the decisions in what action to take, but he was also surprised and angered even more by how he was handling himself. For nearly ten years, since he first came to the Garden, he had dreamed of becoming a leader, someone others could rely on. He always thought he would have a cool head, patience, and a calculating demeanor. It felt like a slap to the face what he was really like.

"Hey, Marshal!" Keado said, breaking him from his reverie.

"Huh? Oh, yeah." They were outside the western entrance, a side door. "On three. One, two-" Suddenly, the door blew open, followed by flames and an invisible wall of blazing hot air that blew him and Keado off their feet and away from the door. The windows above them exploded, sending hundreds of glass shards raining far from the building.

It took a few moments before Marshal regained enough sense to sit up and figure out what the hell just happened. _The explosion at the outlet couldn't have done this!_ He thought. He saw Keado trying to get up, but falling over repeatedly from disorientation.

Finally, Marshal got enough of a hold over himself to get up and drag his sniper comrade away from the building. There, he let go of his teammate and fell to the ground next to him.

"Hey!" Keado said, pointing to the building.

Walking out of the smoky ruin of the building was Hideo, Garden uniform and face black, carrying an equally black Delta in his arms. They were both coughing hard from the smoke. The blond Estharian finally collapsed onto his knees, setting Delta down as carefully as he could, then crashed down next to her, coughing his lungs out.

"Are you two alright? You gonna be okay?" Marshal asked. Neither of them seemed to hear him. He then saw they both had blood coming out of their ears. Without saying anything, he cast _Cure_ on Delta first, as she seemed to be taking it worse, and was about to do the same to Hideo, but Keado was already casting it.

"Hey, you alright?" He repeated. Delta rolled onto her side, still coughing and with her eyes closed, but she managed to nod. Hideo turned his head to Marshal, showing two tiny streams in the soot from his eyes, and quit his coughing fit long enough to say, "I think someone did our job for us."

0000000000

Some time later, he didn't know how long, Hideo took another breath of his oxygen mask, letting the pure O2 fill his lungs, as the doctor put a stethoscope to his chest. When they got back to the Presidential Residence, and the paramedics gave him the mask, the pure oxygen hurt just as much as the fumes he inhaled in the building at first, and brought more tears to his eyes than the smoke had. At least he could see and think straight again.

The doctor took the stethoscope plugs out of his ears and said, "You both were lucky you found shelter as well as you did. You both got very minor burns, and you should be good as new in a few days."

"Thanks, doc." Hideo said, weakly.

"Hey, I should be thanking you for protecting us." The doctor replied with a smile.

"Hey there." Marshal said as he entered the tent. "Great news. It seems we've got them all, finally. President Gulimbee said the regular military can clean out any remaining in the Old Sewers. I guess that means we can go home now."

Hideo looked over to the bed next to him, and smiled at Delta, who smiled back. "Thanks Captain. When do we leave?"

"We're all supposed to report in at the Presidential Residency Courtyard in one hour. Hey doc, will they be ready then?"

"I don't see any problem with it, though I would advise they not do any more roughhousing for a few days." The doctor answered.

"Great. What about the others."

The doctor moved away from the two Garden Students and addressed the others in the small, make-shift infirmary. "Well, this student will need to be on crutches until that legs heals, and this soldier here…" The doctors words faded from Hideo's fatigued mind. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a cloth badge he pulled off one of the bodies in the Old Sewer Control Center. The image was that of a large diamond with the black silhouette of a behemoth's head roaring.

He had seen this image before. He knew what it meant.

Delta reached over and squeezed his free hand. He looked over and saw her smiling at him. He let his tired mind forget about the badge, and resigned to just let events play out for the moment.

0000000000

The Black Behemoth. He still couldn't believe it. It had been three hours since he had reported to Commander Leonhart directly what he knew about the secret society/crime syndicate.

Hideo let the water run across his tired muscles, letting it wash away the soot and sweat from the day. He was back in the Garden, in the shower of his double dorms. Any excitement he should have felt about getting into SeeD was overshadowed by this discovery. _Is this why I was sent out here?_ He wondered. _Did they know about the Black Behemoth before transferring me out of Esthar?_

Stepping out of the shower, he looked at himself through the mirror. He looked over the scars across his chest and abdomen. A scripture of his life, forever engraved to keep him from forgetting. The gangs, the drugs, the violence.

He sighed. _The past is the past. It's your future you should worry about now, Hideo._ And if he were to have a future, he had to find a way into the Headmaster's files. He knew any chance he had would lie in SeeD.

He reached over for his spare, clean Garden uniform.

0000000000

Night had long since fallen, showering the land in starlight. In order to distract himself from the wait, Hideo tried to remember every detail of what the Garden looked like at night, in all it's majestic glory.

He and the nineteen other SeeD candidates who participated in the test were assembled in the second floor hallway. Many of them were pacing, some were talking, some were relating stories of what happened to them, often full of laughs from humiliating situations.

"Hey." Delta said, walking up to him. She had also showered and composed herself as well, but she still looked a little shaken up from what happened. Hideo didn't blame her, he swore he nearly saw his whole life flash before his eyes, and the fights themselves were continually replaying in his mind.

"Can't wait?" He asked her.

"No." She answered with a snicker to show she wasn't in a down mood. She then grew serious. "Rumor has it you know who those men were in the Sewers Control Center. Is that true?"

Before Hideo could answer, one of the Garden Faculty walked into the hallway. Heads turned in unison like a school of fish. The faculty member started reading out names. The third name he called out was Delta's. She laughed with glee, and after giving Hideo a quick hug, she ran off toward the elevator. The man then ran off two more names, then said, "Hideo Masters."

He stepped forward, knowing nothing would be the same again.

0000000000

In the first floor basement, converted into the Headmaster's office, the seven new SeeD members stood at attention.

"As you were." Cid told them. He then gave a speech about the glory of SeeD, and how it was their self-imposed duty to go against any sorceresses who wanted walk in Adel's footsteps. He then started giving out SeeD rank reports, and whispered something in each person's ear, usually making them smile with satisfaction.

Then, he got to Hideo, and spoke out loud. "I hope you are not the last Estharian to grace SeeD, and that our two great nations have a bright future." Hideo smiled and gave a slight bow. He took his rank report from the Headmaster's hands.

Cid bent over, and covered Hideo's ear so only he could hear him. "What you discovered out there, on those men," his next words were almost a hiss, "you saw nothing! Understand?" Hideo had to stop himself from inhaling. What the hell was going on?

Kramer stepped back and spoke aloud to the new SeeDs in his regular, jolly voice, "Great jobs, everyone. I hope to hear great things from all of you." Hideo could have sworn the Headmaster's eyes lingered on him longer than the others. "You are dismissed. Good night, and enjoy your inauguration ceremony, you've certainly earned it."

0000000000

The gaping skylight opened up to the heavens, bathing the ball room in a minor silver coating of moon light on top that of the chandeliers' flames. The beat of the waltz seemed to reflect Hideo's thoughts.

He was bound by the three constantly conflicting priorities in his life: his secret mission, his duty to the Garden, and his own interests. Each led inexorably into the next, always conflicting with each other, yet forever bound together, like a three piece Yin/Yang. He knew that, eventually, he was going to have to choose which to stick with, and no matter which one he chooses, he'll lose them all.

_I have always been a slave to circumstances: I've never had a say in which path I take. Like this waltz, am I forever doomed to repeat this cycle in which I live? To be alone, become dependant, then watch as my world gradually collapses unto itself?_

He realized he had been holding his wine glass of cider for nearly half an hour now without drinking any of it. He took a swig, and instantly noticed it had been spiked. _I see the ironies of my life aren't the only things that never changed._

"Hey, Hideo." The Estharian looked up and saw a male SeeD walking up to him. "There's a few things I need to run by you, and the rest of the new SeeDs." He looked a little nervous, like he didn't like this job. "Now, I don't like asking you to be a snitch, but if you hear about any hazing going on, be sure to report it as soon as possible. A student nearly died a couple years ago in a 'ritual'."

"Yeah, sure." Hideo answered half-heartedly, not paying too much attention.

"And also, you've got your own dorm room to yourself. Dorm number thirty-seven."

"Thanks." Hideo said, hoping the man would just leave him be.

"And one last thing. I need to ask a favor of you. There's a little assignment that needs to be done, but I don't have the time to do it. And, well frankly, you don't look like you're enjoying the party too much."

"I'm not much for parties." Hideo answered. _At least ones like this._ In one of the lower Esthar street gangs, he had his fair share of parties and drinking, but he had never been to a high class one. He felt very out of place, even though he wasn't even a part of it.

"Okay. Well, I was given these documents to put on the Headmaster's desk, but I also have to talk to all the new SeeDs and make sure nothing illicit is going on, and I don't have the time to do both. All you have to do is put this on the headmaster's desk." He pulled out a manila folder. "Can I trust you with this." He said in a mock-super-serious tone, exaggerating the importance of this task.

Hideo was about to refuse when realized this was his chance to get to the Headmaster's mainframe! Trying to still act bored, he grabbed the folder and walked away without a word.

As soon as he was out of the Cafeteria, he dashed over to the dormitory area, racing to his double dorm to retrieve his portocomputer and the Fly. While he was there, he grabbed a handkerchief that Vicks left laying around. He was going to need it.

0000000000

As the elevator went down, he couldn't stop fidgeting. _Can't this damn thing go any faster?_ He wondered for the third time in ten seconds. Finally it stopped, and the door opened to the huge room the Headmaster claimed as his own.

After wiping the sweat from his face with the handkerchief, he stepped out, trying to look like he was doing anything but sneaking. There might still be someone in the room, like Commander Leonhart. Now that would be just perfect, after all the progress he's made, only to be stopped by the legendary mercenary himself.

After a quick look around, he found he was alone in the chamber. Quickly putting the manila folder on the desk with shaky hands, and looking closely to see if it looked like it was laid down in any suspicious way, he got behind the desk and looked at the little computer mainframe that lay under the headmaster's desk. It was a lot bigger than he expected. _Why do I still expect to find some form of well crafted technology somewhere out here?_

He put the Fly next to it, close enough to where it could read it all, and activated it. He was glad his SeeD uniform had long sleeves to conceal his portocomputer. He activated it, and saw from the holographic interface that the Fly was downloading everything.

The way the Fly worked was not to break into the computer, that was done later, but to scan the computer and make a perfect copy of it, right down to the last byte, so that he could hack into it elsewhere and take all the time he needed to, without fear of it alerting some alarm or sending a signal off. And even if the files were set to self-dissolve upon forced entry, he could copy them again.

Hideo had to wipe his face down again as the seconds ticked by. Normally, he was fine under these situations, but he was in the middle of a fortress of some of the most powerful warriors on the planet. Finally, the window said "download complete". He then pressed a short sequence ending the Fly's scanning and turning it off. He grabbed it and put it in his pocket. He didn't stop sweating until he was in his new single dorm room with the door locked behind him.

0000000000

After moving all of his stuff from the double dorm into his new dorm, Hideo spent nearly the whole night digging into the headmaster's computer. Even with their vastly inferior technology, it was obvious Cid Kramer put a lot of money and effort into his safeguards. Finally, he got full access to the man's confidential files.

**Garden Funds**

**SeeD Funds**

**SeeD Deployments**

**SeeD Employer Listings**

**SeeD Member Profiles**

**Confidential Files**

That last link caught Hideo's attention. These WERE his confidential files, what would be more confidential than this? Only one option came to mind. He _really _didn't want anyone to see what was in this folder.

Just to be cautious, with the free space available on the portocomputer, he made another copy of what the Fly had recorded, and checked that file out. As soon as he opened it, it set off a timer that only turned off if the right code was imputed. As expected, when he didn't enter the code, the whole file dissolved, erased from existence. Cid Kramer sure didn't take any chances.

Hideo closed the secondary computer file copy, and brought up a shortcut to a wyrm he used for these situations. As soon as he clicked on the Confidential Files link, he activated the Wyrm, letting it figure out the code. In almost no time, it found the code, and Hideo got full access to the real confidential files. It was labeled simply.

**Operation S.E.E.D.**

"You've got to be kidding me." Hideo muttered. What the hell was this? Progress on their witch hunts? The words letters SEED then split, showing it was an acronym. It read:

**Sentience in**

**Evolution by**

**Elemental**

**Deification**

Now Hideo was really confused. Evolution? Deification?

After digging deeper into the file, he found money transaction records. It turns out Cid was fibbing about the money it took to run the Garden. It made more than he claimed, so with the money left over, it was put into this specific off-shores account. Shortly after, he found E-mails sent by this 'client'. When he looked at the address, he wasn't all too surprised to find out who Cid Kramer was secretly funding.

Manitech Corporations LTD.

The E-mails contained vague accounts of the progress of research, but never anything about what that research was. Hideo tried to recall what Kendal had said about the corporation.

"_They don't go public about their research. It's energy related, as best I can tell. They are a privately funded corporation, after all."_

Cid Kramer was one of, if not _the_ one, privately funding them. The man must have already known who was really behind the attack on Deling City. So is this what he was ordered to find?

His mind wandered back to when this all began.

_Hideo struggled against the two Estharian soldiers' grips, but each time he got a little slack, they gave him a short jolt from their tazers._

_The two men dragged him across the neon illuminated tube, hundreds of feet above the highest buildings, thousands of feet above the ground. They dragged him across the hallways to a set of heavily shielded doors that, despite the security purpose, were still ornate._

_The doors opened, granting them access to a grand office. In there, three men stood, wearing clothing that wasn't Estharian in design. The men weren't even Estharian._

"_How can you serve someone like that?" Hideo said to the two soldiers in spite. Without response, they dragged him into the room, and held him down in front of the desk. Standing behind it was a tall, slender man with long black hair, looking over the grand site that his office offered of the country/city._

"_Sir, we have brought the hacker known as 'Masters'." One of the soldiers announced._

_The man turned, and revealed himself to be the president of Esthar, Laguna Loire._

_He gave a disapproving frown. "Is it really necessary to hold him down so roughly."_

_Hideo answered before the soldiers. "If you don't mind getting your ass kicked, it's not." The soldier gave him a slight jolt of the tazer._

"_Hey, THAT was not necessary." He told the soldier. He redirected his voice back to Hideo. "Why do you hate me so much?"_

"_Esthar should be run by Esthar, not some Galbadian usurper!" Hideo replied, venom in his voice._

_The President was about to say something, probably something stupid as usual in his defense, but Prime Minister Seagill spoke up. "Laguna, it's not worth it. Let him believe what he wants."_

_Loire looked at the dark skinned man, then nodded. "Okay, Kiros."_

_He turned his attention back to the hacker. "Do you know why I've brought you here instead of to court?"_

"_You're hoping that my presence will increase your IQ?" He always wanted to say that to the president's face._

_Laguna snickered, though not mockingly. He seemed to actually find it funny! Was there no end to the man's stupidity? "No, it's because we're willing to make a deal with you. A full pardon, and all this will be wiped from your record. What do you say?"_

_Hideo pretended to be thinking. "Hmm, how about I say…eat shit, and give me my lawyer."_

_Laguna just held the bridge of his nose for a second in frustration._

"_Your trial will take five minutes at most, even with the best lawyer in the country." The Prime Minister injected. "We have eyewitness accounts, video recordings, and your epithelial tissue at the scene. It's suicide to plead not guilty."_

_Hideo was silent for a moment. For all the distrust he bore them, he knew they were right. "So what kind of sentence am I looking at?"_

_The Prime Minister started listing the charges. "Illegally hacking government software, five years, more if we can get proof you did more than just this job. Theft of company funds, fifteen years. Illegal trafficking of confidential stock market information, seven years. Resisting arrest, three years. Aggravated assault of eight military soldiers, six to ten months each. Assault of one security guard, one secretary-"_

"_I got it." Hideo interrupted. "So why me? Why didn't you strike a deal like this to Mephisto when you caught him?"_

"_Actually, Mephisto was a woman, and you have skills neither she, nor most other hackers have." Kiros added. "You have great talent and skill for infiltrating even tightly secured locations without leaving a trace and without any people or cameras getting a good look at your face. That takes a very calculating mind to do such things with such efficiency. You learned to do on your own what takes years to teach professional agents._

"_And on top of all that, you knocked out and injured eight armed MPs, and it took five soldiers to hold you down long enough to stun you." The Prime Minister looked smug. "I'd say those are sufficient qualifications to this assignment."_

"_So what's the assignment, if I do decide to take it?" Hideo asked Loire._

"_We have gathered disturbing intelligence-" Laguna started explaining._

"_I'll bet just learning about it hurt your brain." Hideo interrupted._

_Laguna continued, annoyed, "…disturbing intelligence that points to under-the-table dealings with Balamb Garden's highest ranks. It could mean nothing, it could mean everything. We want you to infiltrate as a student, maybe even become a SeeD, and find out what's going on. Do this for us, and you'll get a full pardon, and you may even get a job in SeeD while you're at it."_

_Hideo searched his memory. "Balamb Garden…isn't it that military academy on that tiny island? If they're running a side business, why do you care?"_

_The prime minister took over. "We hired Balamb Garden to take over Lunatic Pandora a year ago, and ever since then, they've been taking an unusually large role in the push for us to open our borders back up for commerce. One would find that suspect. This, plus the 'side business', is definitely worth suspicion."_

_Laguna looked Hideo in the eye with a cold seriousness the youth never knew the jolly, airhead president was capable of. "We'll give you six months for this assignment. If you take any longer than that, or run for it, or reveal any of this to anyone, or report anything fabricated to us, we WILL take you back, reopen this trial and push for the maximum sentence." Hideo understood then how much he had underestimated the president._

_The last words Laguna said would forever follow the young Estharian. "I may be the President, but I will not hesitate to lock up some street urchin!"_

Just some street urchin. No matter how hard he tries to lose his past, no matter what he learns, no matter how many computers he hacks, or what status he obtains, he will always be an orphan off the streets. He even had to use his hackers alias in place of the last name he never had, and make up stories of an orphanage that didn't exist.

He typed up his message onto the portocomputer, encrypted it three times, then activated the long range transmitters.

End of Chapter Four.

Author's Note: Well, there you have it. As you may have read in the last chapter, this chapter was originally the second half of chapter three, but no more.


	6. The Shadow Runner

Disclaimer: I don't own FFVIII, or anything in this fanfic relating to the places, peoples, locations, things, objects, terms, or events that occurred or appeared in the game.

**Chapter Five: The Shadow Runner**

Walking up the stairs, Hideo stepped out onto the second floor deck. He found Delta already there. It had been a week since they were inaugurated into SeeD, and since then, the Garden had become mobile once again, traveling across the continents. They were currently in the seas northwest of the Centra Isles.

"Hey." He said to her.

"Hey." She repeated.

He stood next to her, propping his arms on the railing, staring out across the vast horizon. Looking out to sea, seeing it stretch infinitely out onto the horizon always made him feel at peace, made him feel less attached to this world.

After some time, Delta broke the silence between them. "They're still junctioned, aren't they?"

"Huh?" He asked.

"Your GF." She answered, some concern in her voice. "You never seem go without them. Aren't you worried about what it'll do to your memory?"

"Nope." He answered simply, as if it were no big deal. He noticed she was about to say more, but interrupted her. "I don't have many happy memories. Most of them I would be glad to forget."

Delta looked at him inquisitively. "What do you mean? The orphanage?"

Hideo sighed. He didn't like talking about his past, or the past in general. Even more than that, he hated being pitied. He knew that she was raised in an upper class family, being closely related to a Count in Dollet, and he doubted she would understand what it was like for him. But some part of him, for some reason he didn't understand, wanted to tell her, wanted her to understand him, even a little. He had been alone for many years, and until now, he thought he wanted had to stay there way.

"I'm an orphan, but I was never left at an orphanage. I was left to die in some back alley in the lowest levels of Esthar. Never knew my parents, and I don't want to. The farthest back I can remember, I was scavenging for food in dumpsters with barely a few cloths on my back." He paused to make sure he didn't reveal too much. There were some things too painful to talk about.

"I think I was eight when I joined my first gang."

"You were in a gang?" She asked, surprised.

"I wouldn't be alive if I weren't." He answered. He tried to keep himself from getting angry at her naivety. After he escaped that life, he found out that nearly everyone outside the slums believed gangs were only kids who wanted to be known and get violent, that it was one of the surest ways to get killed. To him, it was an opinion made by those who were born in wealth and golden cribs, who walked on flower pedals and never on dirt.

"But weren't you afraid you'd get killed or something?" She asked, still surprised.

"Of course I was, that was life. There were plenty of times I'd have bullets flying over my head, a rival gang member with a knife in front of me, people trying to knock me into a secluded corner, but it would have been worse if I hadn't been with them."

"What do you mean? How could it have been worse?" She asked, incredulous.

Hideo was starting to get angry. He didn't want to be angry, not with her. It was ironic, when he thought about it: he had always hated the wealthy with a passion, and now his only friend was an aristocrat.

"If I hadn't joined, I would've been killed a lot sooner. At least when we were together, I could get food regularly, and I got respect. Down there, if you didn't have respect, you had a death warrant. We watched each other's backs. As long as I wore the stripes of a real gang, no one dared touch me unless they thought they could take on an entire neighborhood. You couldn't walk down one block without finding some guy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, said or saw something they shouldn't have, or was caught in a random drive-by shooting. The authorities considered us poor folk as little more than 'statistics'."

Delta didn't say anything for nearly a minute, and Hideo didn't look at her that time.

He then rolled up his right dragon emblazoned jumpsuit's sleeve up to his elbow. Delta gasped.

Along the underside of his forearm, there were dozens of scars. Some were lines from cuts, and some were other kinds. "These," Hideo said, pointing to the many white pinpoints along his arm, "are from needles. These," He pointed to the white lines across his wrist, "were an initiation that nearly killed me. And this," he pointed to a round spot of scar tissue, "is from the cigar of a guy I didn't beat in a fight."

He unrolled his sleeve, and said, "And that's just my forearm."

Delta wasn't looking him in the eyes anymore. "Have you…have you ever killed…"

"You mean murdered?" Hideo interceded. "Yeah, I have. It's the only law down there, kill or be killed. If I hadn't done it to them, they would've done it to me. I did it all, drugs, murder, vandalism, you name it. The slums were my cradle, knives and guns were my toys, and threats were my lullabies."

Delta didn't say anything, she wasn't even looking at him anymore. Hideo turned back to stare out to the ocean, and they didn't speak for several minutes. He tried to find that calm again, but the echoes of his memories wouldn't leave him; screams, fires, gunshots, pools of blood, Tetsuya.

Hideo closed his eyes tightly. _Tetsuya…_

"How did you manage to come to the Garden?" Delta asked eventually.

"I wasn't always in the lower streets. Most people live on the upper levels, where there's floating streets and walkways, and you can see nearly the whole sky. Where the gangs were, where I was, was at the ground level, the very bottom of Esthar. Back then, the he two of us always dreamed of getting up there."

"'The two of you'?" She asked.

Hideo felt a tremor run through him. Tetsuya, the one who raised him, the older brother who protected him and kept him alive, the only family he had, the one whom Hideo wasn't even sure he was blood related to, was a subject he wasn't going to talk about, even to her. "Forget about it." He said. He could barely contain the rush of memories, and he fought to hold back his tears.

"But-" She started.

"I said forget about it!" He cut her off with a cold edge she had never heard him use before.

She didn't say anymore, but she had a look of guilt that made Hideo wish he hadn't said it so harshly. "I eventually managed to jack a hover car and get up there." Hideo continued. "For several days, I hid in an unused apartment. By chance, I met up with my mentor, Liam." He was glad he turned the subject to his mentor, which was the closest thing to a father he ever had. It helped distract him from his brother. "He was a hacker who was looking for a place to lay low, and ended up in my hiding spot. Instead of kicking me out, he took me under his wing, teaching me about computers, how they worked, and eventually how to hack them. I think I was twelve then." He turned toward the ocean view, and rested his chin on his hands as he looked out to sea. "Everything changed for me then. When I saw how I could affect things with numbers and codes that didn't physically exist, when I saw my imagination make changes before my eyes, I…I don't know how to explain it. I found my release, a place where I could go an be free of the pain I knew in my past, I place I could always return to and feel at peace. It quickly became my obsession, and in less than a year, Liam said I had learned everything I could learn from him."

"So instead of being a gangster, you became a hacker." She said distantly.

"Yeah, from one life of crime to another. At least this one got me real money, clean air, and sunshine." _And the greatest reward: striking back at those who always turned a blind eye and deaf ear to me._ He silently added.

"And you were never caught?"

"I had a few close calls, but I guess I got tired of it all." _I'd never tire of the exhilaration, the reward of a successful hack. _"I left Esthar, hoping to get a new life." _I left in order to get my life back. _"I guess I was trying to let go of the past." _I guess I'll never be able to escape it. _"I wanted to taste freedom for once, to not be forever on the run." _The more of this 'freedom' I get, the tighter my leash becomes. _"The Garden intrigued me." _I couldn't have cared less. _"I just wanted to leave Esthar." _In order to return. _"I'm not sure if I'll ever go back." _I will return someday, I swear on my life, I will see your beauty again._

0000000000

When he returned to his Dorm, he found a message with the SeeD Seal on it, saying to meet Malak in the Training Center, and to bring his sword, guns, and GFs.

As he walked down the sub-hallway to the antechamber outside the Monster's Lair, he heard the sounds of steel beating against steel. When he got there, he found Malak and Commander Leonhart dueling. The commander was brandishing his famous gunblade with a kind of lion engraving on the blade, and the Weapon's Master was using his Nodachi, a katana with a four-and-a-half foot long blade. The extra length made the breadth of the blade look almost needle thin.

They were fighting almost like they were in a dance, using perfect form throughout it all. Malak was making long, flowing slices, while using the curvature of the blade to slide the oncoming attacks away along it's length. The commander, on the other hand, had the shorter weapon with the strange curved hilt, making all his strikes, blocks, and every other movement centered on the wrists, making every move a whipping motion.

After a minute of being admired by the junior SeeD, the two of them stopped. "I'm glad you came." Malak said, wiping some sweat from his brow. The commander put his gunblade away. His two belts were a strange kind of holder, acting kind of like a loophole.

"The symbol for the Garden is based on the concept of balance." Malak explained. "One represents the GF, the outside power. It's what gives us our strength, increases our magic, and sharpens our senses. The other represents the self, the inner power. This is your mind, your inner spirit. The GF, though an individual, can be used by anyone, but what you are is something no one else has. We're here to discover what that is."

Hideo was completely lost. "Huh?"

"Your Limit Break, Hideo. Everyone's is different. Squall here has nearly mastered his, the Renzokuken technique." Hideo was surprised he talked about the commander on a first name basis. No one did that. But of course, the Weapon's Master was his teacher. It was strange to think that he was being taught by the same man who trained the 'Legendary Mercenary'.

"Everyone has a Limit Break as unique as the person who uses them. We're here to find out yours." He nodded to Commander Leonhart, who pulled out his gunblade, and advanced on the young Estharian.

A moment of panic gripped Hideo. _The Commander is challenging me directly? I'm dead!_ He fumbled a bit trying to grip his sword, but he managed to pull it out just in time to deflect the first blow. In less time than he would have thought possible, the commander used the momentum of the deflection to spin around and do another strike. Very quickly, Hideo became purely on the defensive, only paying attention to blocking and parrying all of Commander Leonhart's attacks. It wasn't long before, with an upward strike to Hideo's block, the young Estharian was thrown onto his back.

"HALT!" Malak shouted with a booming sense of authority in his voice. In the blink of an eye, the commander went from an offensive stance to just standing there casually with his gunblade put away.

"Hideo," Malak said in his lecturing tone, "you can't just let your opponent clobber you like that. Let them make the first move, let them expose themselves, let them set the terms so you can exploit them. Relax, and let the GF guide your instincts."

"Master," Hideo said while getting up, "how is this supposed to reveal my Limit Break?" He actually was embarrassed by how poor his performance was in front of the commander. He was a supposed to be a SeeD, not a wide eyed coward!

"The challenge. Limit Breaks are created through the connection between yourself and the nature of GF. Naturally, the more challenging the opposition, the more you'll rely on this bond. You have to find a stillness and harmony within yourself, and it will come out."

He stepped back to give them more room. "Once again." Malak ordered, and in a flash, Comander Leonhart had his gunblade out. In the instant between barely blocking a couple of strikes, Hideo forced his mind to be calm, and to make his body let go of any tension. He barely noticed his defense getting better, and that he was counterattacking and not just defending. His mind, his attention, his life became a constant rhythm of action and reaction.

He clashed his blade onto Squall's, pushed it to one side, bringing him shoulder to shoulder with the commander. As soon as his foot touched down, he hammered his elbow into his opponent's ribs. He tried to step away, but Squall had wrapped his foot around Hideo's and with a hard tug, he pulled him back in.

Hideo knocked the oncoming attack up, and stepped past his opponent, then stepped his other foot around into a scissor stance, hooking it around Squall's leg, and quickly spun around into a table-top horse stance, putting pressure onto his opponent's leg, forcing him off balance. Squall was too close in for swordplay, so Hideo put his arm around his opponent's chest, and pushed him over his thigh, tripping him to the ground.

Before his opponent could turn around to face him, Squall did a kick up, kicking Hideo's back in the process, to create some distance between them. Hideo didn't waste any time, and stepped back using a wide horizontal swing. With an easy flip of the wrist, Squall knocked it out of the way, and as Hideo stepped in, Squall kicked him in the stomach before he got the chance to attack.

Hideo regained himself almost instantly, and stepped in with a downward vertical slash, only to pull the sword in close to him before it was to be blocked by Squall, and shuffle-stepped in closer to stab. Squall twisted, using his elbow to push the blade to the side, away from his torso, cutting it in the process, and with his raised gunblade, butted Hideo in the forehead.

Hideo staggered back, dizzy from the hit, and then he felt the pulling, buzzing tingle of his GF's instincts. Then, a fire erupted in his vision, one that blazed through his body, yet throughout it's fury, there was a calm harmony about it.

He moved, sprinting away to the side, leaving a shadowy, distorted trail in his wake, before the area was engulfed in an _Ultima_ spell. Almost immediately after, several massive bullets went flying at him. He could see them approaching, and without thinking, he ran up the nearby wall, straight up it as if gravity had been turned sideways. A _Fira _spell shot at him, and he jumped off the wall at an angle towards the ground. As soon as he landed, he ran straight at Squall. In an instant, he stepped to the side to as the last of the gunblade's bullets flew past him. He swung his Lunar Edge, and stopped it a hair's breadth from Squall's neck.

"Halt!" Malak said, again with impressive authority. In that moment, the euphoria Hideo experienced was gone, time and thought returned to him.

After a few moments to collect himself and his breath, Hideo asked. "Was that it?"

"Yes, that was the _Shadow Run_ technique, I believe. You're the first student I've taught who's had it." Malak turned to the commander. "How's your arm?"

Hideo then noticed that Squall's arm was cut from when he blocked with his elbow earlier.

"It's nothing." Squall answered.

"So Hideo Masters, you're a _Shadow Runner_. Speed truly is your ally."

_A Shadow Runner, eh?_ Hideo mused. _Appropriate; I've been running from the shadows of my past, I'm being controlled by a shadow, and I'm chasing shadows._

0000000000

That night, Hideo set up a link up to the Estharian geo-synchronous satellite he used to contact the Estharian Encoded Transmissions Central. He hated waiting for responses, so he decided to do something different this time.

Through the transmission, he hacked into the EETC, then into their direct link to the Presidential Palace. After doing a few tricks while there, the sounds of a portable comlink clicked. "This is the President."

"Hey, shit head. Increase your IQ lately?" Hideo greeted.

"_Hideo?_" He hissed. "How the heck did you get this number? It can only be accessed through the-"

"Through the Presidential Palace Mainframe. Geez, have you already forgotten what I do for a living?"

"Well I'm busy, talk to the Prime Minister." The president said abruptly.

A few seconds later, another voice came through. "What is it, 'Masters'?"

"I'm tired of being told the same thing. This is the last time I'm going to say this: unless you want me to interrogate Cid himself, this trail is cold, there's nothing more I can do here! Go invade and conquer Manitech Headquarters or something if you want more, ain't that what you Galbadians are good at?"

He could hear a low growl on the other end. "One would rightfully call you an impatient little brat, Masters, so I'll tell you this now instead of letting you know in the morning. We've already infiltrated Manitech, and our intelligence has intercepted a communiqué to the Garden. They want SeeD to go to their secret primary research facility and download their files. You are going to go along, use that Fly of yours, and make a copy for us, including a copy of all passwords and codes for full access."

Hideo stopped himself from cursing. "Mister Prime Minister, how do you expect me to do that, huh? I don't choose SeeD assignments, and I can't ask to be put on this assignment unless you want me to be caught, which it really wouldn't surprise me if you did."

"Find a way." Was all he said before he hung up.

End of Chapter Five.

Author's Notes: Okay, a bit uneventful, but I wanted it to kinda set up the next chapter. A sort of calm before the storm. I'll be spending a little more time making corrections to chapter six, since the turn the plot takes has been said to be a little too abrupt.


	7. A New Power Awakened

Disclaimer: I don't own FFVIII. If I did, you would be seeing this story on your PS2 instead of on your computer.

**Chapter Five: A New Power Awakened**

Hideo jumped back, doing a flip to avoid the Grat that was flailing at him. As the monster closed in, he started spinning his translucent blue sword in vertical circles, from left to right, knocking away the flailing arms. The Grat's leathery skin made it hard to cut those tentacles off, as they were batted off like ribbons.

_Just a little longer…_he thought.

It was funny watching the behavior of monsters. This one was a berserker, attacking relentlessly, while his friend stayed close behind, obviously watching for a opening thanks to his reckless friend.

Hideo quickly turned, and jumped off a stump, flipped in the air, and landed ten feet away. _Just a couple more seconds…_

The large ferns he jumped over slowed them down for the time he needed.

Hideo smiled. "Crush of the Abyss." He whispered. His body vanished, yet he still saw everything that happened. Everything within ten feet of the first Grat grew dark, until only it stood there.

Out of the darkness beyond the Grat, a giant squid undulated forward through the air as if it were in water. It's rubbery skin flashed different shades of blue across it, like the sand under the crashing surface of a beaches surf.

Krakken then turned it's arrow-shaped head upward, it's full twelve-foot length revealed. His lone, gigantic eye focused on the Grat, and then shined a bright turquoise. The ground under the monster turned blue, and shot up, surrounding it in a sphere of water.

Krakken's ten arms fanned out, then shot straight down. The sphere of water holding the Grat suddenly compressed, crushing the monster. Green blood and other bodily fluids mixed into the water, cloaking the monster's body. Krakken then disappeared, light returned to the surroundings, and the sphere of water hit the ground, leaving the Grat laying there like a broken sack of meat.

Hideo's body returned to the physical realm, just in time to hear the intercom turn on. **Hideo Masters, please report to the bridge.**

Before Hideo could turn to leave the Training Center, four leathery arms wrapped around him, pinning his sword to his sides. The other Grat, the methodical one, turned him around, and dragged him towards it's Venus Flytrap like mouth.

"Clever girl." Hideo mumbled, realizing the monster had used the death of it's friend to get behind him. As soon as it lifted him up to be swallowed, the intercom finished off. **I repeat, Hideo Masters, please report to the bridge.**

One look at the monster's insides, and Hideo grumbled, knowing he was not going to be presentable when he reached the bridge.

0000000000

Squall looked back at his watch. "I'll give him another thirty-seconds before I'll make another announcement." He said to the headmaster.

"I'm sure we just caught him in the shower or something." Cid commented.

Then, the doors to the bridge opened, and Hideo walked in. His black jumpsuit and blue trench coat, with their matching gold and silver dragon designs, were covered in green blood and gunk, with some entrails of Grat intestines.

"I see we may have caught you at a bad time." Cid commented.

_In no small part thanks to your impeccably timed announcement._ Hideo thought, keeping his comment silent. As soon as he was standing before them, he saluted and stood at attention. "I guess you could say that. Is it okay if we make this quick?"

"Absolutely." Cid walked over to a desk, and pulled up a file. "I've been told by many of your instructors that you're…quite knowledgeable in computer handling. We've been hired to go to a lost mobile research laboratory, recently discovered, and download their memory banks. SeeD is a group of combat specialists, so computer specialization is somewhat rare within our ranks."

"Sir, why are we going and not a tech specialist team." Hideo already knew the answer, but he wanted to act as ignorant as possible. After Prime Minister Seagill's threats, he had done what he could to 'remind' his instructors of all those times he proved his superior computer knowledge and skill, and it seemed the 'reminders' proved successful.

"That's why the station was lost in the first place, because it was overrun with monsters. Seeing as you seem to know more about computers than our own maintenance crew, I'd like to assign you to this mission. It'll be good to break you in."

Hideo nodded. "Sir, when should I be ready?"

"You are to depart at O-six hundred hours tomorrow morning. You may want to bring a book, it'll be a long flight."

0000000000

It _was_ a long flight. The Ragnarok was made more for space travel than atmospheric flight. As such, they would depart early morning, and be arriving at the station by early afternoon. Hideo had stored his portocomputer and Fly in an air suit compartment, the last place anyone would need to be, the last place anyone would look.

"So, what are you reading?" Ashwin asked Hideo in the passenger lounge, taking a break from his Occult Fan Magazine.

"Vengeance of the Marquis." Hideo answered. It was a political thriller involving members of the Dollet aristocracy; a book Delta recommended for him.

Hideo put the book down and gazed up to the early morning sky. He wished Delta had been put on this mission, she had been avoiding him since their talk on the balcony. It must be tough for someone who had everything growing up to try and sympathize with someone they cared about who grew up with nothing.

Hideo thought about that. _Cared about…yeah, she probably cares about me._ It slightly surprised him to find himself admitting that he cared for her as well. And not for the first time, he wondered why someone like her would want to join SeeD.

He sighed. Now he really wished she had been assigned to this mission as well.

"Hideo Masters, report to the bridge." Commander Leonhart's voice said over the speakers.

"I wonder how many more times I'll hear that." He jokingly mused.

A minute later, the elevator lifted him to the bridge. "Sit down here." The commander ordered, pointing to the seat next to him.

After Hideo seated himself, the commander continued, "I'm going to teach you how to fly this thing."

"Huh!" Hideo asked, surprised. The stone cold, monotonous, virtually friendless, often-called-a-jerk, Commander Leonhart _had_ to be making a jest of some kind.

Well, it had to be possible at least.

"Standard operating procedure: whenever the Ragnarok is commissioned, there has to be at least two SeeDs or Garden members onboard capable of piloting."

Hideo became really anxious. He had never been one to want to fly, but now that he had the opportunity, he felt a new exhilaration at the idea.

"For right now, hold the wheel still. Move it _slightly_ to adjust course, don't move it any more than that unless we _need _to make sharp turns." He then showed him how to operate the pedals, which adjusted the individual outputs of the two engines, working in a similar way to a rudder, and about the acceleration and deceleration controls, what the different gauges were, and so on.

For the first few hours of daylight, the commander let Hideo fly the craft. Surprisingly, it was very uneventful. Indeed, he barely had to move the wheel to adjust course. If he moved the wheel a whole inch to the side, he could have noticed the change if he were asleep. It was uneventful, even a little boring, yet it's own exhilaration to it, mild as it was.

As soon as the sun was well above the horizon, Squall took back the controls, and explained, as best he could, the process of taking off and landing. Shortly after that, Hideo left to the passenger lounge, where the five other SeeD members had their seats leaning as far back as they would go, trying to get a last hour or two of sleep.

As he lay there, he wished, more and more, that Delta was there with him.

0000000000

As Hideo walked out of the refresher unit, he saw Marlon leaning against the wall, reading Ashwin's Occult Fan. "Hey." He greeted, not looking away from it.

Hideo greeted him back before heading towards the cargo hold.

"Hideo." Marlon said, making him stop. "You ever read these?" He asked, referring to the magazine.

"No, I'm not into tabloids." Hideo answered.

"Well, you wouldn't believe some of the crap these guys come up with. You've heard of the Black Behemoth? That multinational crime syndicate? Well, they say they have, get this, a sorcerer in their ranks! A sorcer_er_, as in male! HA!"

Hideo couldn't help but chuckle at that. "Yeah, that is ridiculous."

Then, the door the to main hallway opened up, and Marion, Marlon's older sister, walked ran in. "Hey, the lab is in sight!"

Hideo and Marlon quickly followed her to the passenger lounge, where they could see the approaching research center.

"They didn't say anything about it being in the middle of the ocean." Hideo said.

"They aren't from Esthar," Marion said, "something that size can only be mobile on water."

"Kinda looks like an oil rig, don't you think?" Marlon asked.

"Yeah, it kinda does." Hideo didn't bother asking what an oil rig was. Esthar stopped using fossil fuels decades ago.

"So what's this place called?" Hideo asked.

"It's the Deep Sea Research Center, also known as Battle Ship Island."

0000000000

After they had landed on the remains of the station's heliport, all the SeeDs met up in the docking bay. After being briefed on what monsters to expect, and the general design of the station, they discussed strategies of entering, monster extermination methods, and the chain of command, with Commander Leonhart and Zell Dincht at the top.

Then, Squall pressed the button to lower the ramp. For the dozenth time since he grabbed them, Hideo casually checked his pocket to make sure the Fly was still there, safe and secure, and equally casually scratching his arm to feel the portocomputer. Just one glance at the right angle, it could be seen, and if he didn't come up with a good excuse real fast, he would be exposed.

"Hey, Esthar dude." Zell said to Hideo, making him jump slightly. "Since you're the junior member here, I thought I'd give you this, you'll need it here." A GF sphere materialized in Zell's hand, and he handed it to the young Estharian.

As Hideo absorbed it into him, he felt a new rush as the GF's immense power flowed into him. This GF was far more powerful than both of his GFs combined!

"What is this?" Hideo asked.

"That's Bahamut, baby! And yes, as in THE Bahamut."

"The king of dragons!" Hideo couldn't believe it. Right at that moment, he was the host of one of the most powerful GFs known! He felt the eddies and eases of Bahamut's power coursing through him, dwarfing his other GFs. "Where did you get him?"

"Funny enough as it is, we found him here." Zell answered.

"What, the Ragnarok?"

"No, this research station." Zell answered. "They contained him here to do experiments on GF research."

Hideo felt a hard pulse from Bahamut, one that resonated with anger and contempt.

"Everyone." Squall spoke up a moment after that, addressing all the SeeDs present. "Be on your guard at all times, report everything that's even imaginarily suspicious, keep track of each other and watch their backs, and be prepared for retreat. Understood?"

A few of them gave their affirmatives, but Ashwin asked, "Sir, why the extra precaution? All reports indicate this place is only a Class B danger zone, and most of us have been through such places before."

Hideo was thinking the same thing. Deling City was classified as Class B as well, and with this mission also involving heavy monster populations, they were very similar. But the commander seemed hesitant, even a little spooked.

Commander Leonhart looked away from the group, off into empty space for a moment, then looked towards the ramp, where the station lay, deep thought showing behind those eyes. Deep thought and worry. "There's…something there. Something we don't know about, but it's definitely there. And I don't want any surprises."

There was some unrest visible within the group at these words. Some of them felt the unrest from Squall's warnings, the rest worried that he was losing it.

"Is he always this paranoid?" Hideo asked Zell in a whisper.

"No." He answered, his tone deadly serious. "I was here when we discovered this place. There's definitely something here. You may not feel it now, but you will soon. Trust me."

For a moment, Bahamut's power within him spiked, and Hideo got the distinct feeling that he was being watched. The feeling was so powerful, so palpable, it was almost as if the whole planet had laid it's eyes upon him. For a moment, two blue eyes, surrounded in gold, filled his vision, freezing him in place, gripping his heart in it's grip.

The experience lasted but a moment, and it was gone. The thought came to say something of what he just saw, but the thought left him as soon as it came, as well as the moment of the experience, as if swept away by a current.

Then a loud thud resounded, distracting Hideo from his seemingly blind confusion. The gangway had hit the tarmac. "Move out!" Squall ordered.

Shaking the feelings of fear that he couldn't remember the cause of, Hideo took a deep breath, then pulled out his sword and a gun. He held his sword across his body, ready to swing in a moment's notice, while keeping the gun trained forward. He was to hold the group's left flank as they traveled through the station.

As they crossed the ruins of the landing pad, Hideo felt Bahamut's power…blooming, in a sense. The GF knew battle wasn't far off. His power and pride became one with his own, and all the anxiety and fear he felt evaporated.

As they entered the main building, Hideo saw the inside was as overgrown with vegetation as the outside. This place looked like it had been abandoned for decades in the middle of a jungle. _'What happened here? How could plants like this have grown in a place like this? How did they even get here?'_ He wondered.

The Commander held up his fist, signaling the others to stop. He and Zell stepped forward. They looked around, like there was a ghost constantly staying at the edge of their vision. They looked at each other, and it was obvious they knew they both were thinking the same thing.

"Don't let your guard down." Squall reminded. He signaled for them to continue on. He then lead them to a cascade of large wires and cables that went down a large hole in the ground. "I'll go down first. Follow when I tell you it's clear." He announced before jumping down.

Immediately, the familiar screams and roars of smaller monsters were heard down there, along with a few yells from the commander, and a couple ear shattering booms of his gunblade going off. In under twenty seconds, all went silent, save the howling winds from the outdoors and the distant crashing waves against the station's hull. "Clear!"

Zell nodded to Kayla, who grabbed onto the cables, and climbed down. Marion went down next, followed by Hideo. As he jumped the last few feet, he saw the basement levels were circular around a huge tank full of amazingly clear water, or whatever it was. He could think of half a dozen chemicals that were that clear.

Ashwin and Marlon touched ground soon enough, and finally Zell joined them. "Listen up!" Squall announced, in a half whisper. "From now on, no unnecessary noise, and _only_ explosive rounds are to be used, absolutely _no_ penetration rounds! We don't want to puncture the tank." He motioned towards the windows. "We don't know how strong the windows are, and I don't want to test them. Even with explosive rounds, don't fire unless absolutely necessary, and only if you're sure you will not hit the tank if you miss. Is that understood?"

The group gave a synchronized 'yes, sir'. "The main computer is on the bottom floor. We have five more floors to go down." Squall then motioned for them to follow in formation. After circumventing a quarter of the tank, they found the hatch to the next level.

Squall touched a panel to open the nearby door, and as the large pressure doors opened, they found themselves staring at a half dozen Grendals.

"No discharges!" Squall ordered before getting in a defensive stance. Hideo moaned and quickly holstered his pistol. The instincts of the King of Dragons took over, and flopped backwards onto his back as one of the dragons jumped at him. He shot his foot up, knocking the beast up. As the monster hit the ceiling, crushing cables and girders, Hideo did a kip-up, then as the beast fell down, he grabbed it by the hackle, and with one hand, tossed it at another Grendal that had knocked over Ashwin, sending them both crashing into the far wall, crushing their bones.

_Damn! This GF is powerful!_

Hideo then pulled out his pistol, and fired a round into another Grendal's small head. He turned and watched Commander Leonhart decapitate one and Marlon skewer the last one on his spear.

Squall swung his gunblade to shake off the blood. "Don't relax yet, there are plenty left out there."

0000000000

It took them some time to make it to the bottom of the facility. There were a lot of monsters that slowed them down, but slowing them down was about it. Squall Leonhart, the Legendary Mercenary, was every bit as good in reality as he was in the stories, and Zell Dincht was very impressive in his own right. So even though they were getting into constant fights, they usually got over quickly and without injury.

Hideo couldn't believe how strong Bahamut made him. It seemed like there was no end to the depth of his power. But rumor had it that the commander had an even more powerful GF, though it seemed little more than a rumor.

After finishing off a trio of Anacondaurs, Squall punched in a code to an apparently high security room. "This is it." He announced as the door opened. "Zell, you keep Marlon, Marion, and Kayla out here, don't let the monsters get close to the door. If you are in desperate need of assistance, pound on the door three times fast. Ashwin, Hideo and I will download the files."

Zell, Kayla, and Marlon saluted. The four of them stayed outside the door as the other party entered the room and shut the security door. Hideo walked over to the main terminal, sat down in the chair, and booted up the system. "I'm surprised the power's even on." He mentioned.

"This place was built to last." Squall explained. "It was state of the art ten years ago."

Finally, after what felt like far too long for any piece of digital equipment, the words 'enter code' came on the screen. "So, did our client supply an access code?"

"Only the head scientist here knew it, and he never left. That's why we brought you along."

"Okay, but first I'll have to get on the inside of the machine for a second." Hideo got out of his seat, and pulled open a panel to access the wires. He pretended to inspect the circuitry, but while he blocked the others' view, he put the Fly in it, and pressed a short-cut button on his portocomputer to start downloading.

He then sat himself back in the seat and started working on bypassing the code. It took a few minutes, as Hideo had to adjust to this kind of simplistic computer software, but he got in. "Okay," he said, "so where's the recorder?"

Squall reached into their supply bag, and handed him a container of twenty or compact disks. "We were told to get everything, even personal, private files."

Hideo looked at the CDs, and finally figured out what the inferior contraptions were. "Wait, these things don't record the entire mainframe at once. This means I'll have to bypass into every system individually to record everything. That could take hours!"

"We're not paid to do easy jobs, Masters, so unless you can think of something faster, you're just making this longer." Commander Leonhart pointed out.

He had a point, Hideo didn't know any faster methods at his disposal other than exposing the Fly, and everything else along with it. "Okay, but I hope you brought something with caffeine in it."

0000000000

Three hours later, Hideo inserted the last floppy disk he would need. "Finally." He mumbled. There were well over a hundred scientists working here, each with his or her own field, research, and private files. The downloading process was incredibly slow, especially for Hideo. Not only was the technology ten years old, but so were the computers themselves, and he was sure they've decayed in that time.

So slow were the downloads that Hideo had bypassed every code-required program in the system by the time the third disk was downloading. It didn't help that he had to download the core programming on every disk so that it wouldn't just get a series of 1's and 0's. Even Squall looked like the waiting was getting to him.

**Knock, knock, knock!**

Like a cat, Squall went from leaning against the wall, looking half asleep, to springing at the door panel to open it. Zell looked at him from the other side. "Hey man, did ya hear that?"

"Hear what?" Squall asked. Then, a roar that sounded halfway between an elephant and an elk bugle could be heard. "Ah shit." He swore glumly.

"I think we could use some help out here, 'cause he's definitely coming this way." Zell added.

"Hideo, how long until the download is complete?"

The Estharian sighed anxiously. "At least fifteen minutes."

"All right, stay here until then. Ashwin, you're joining us, so warm up fast, and junction you GF." As soon as Ashwin was on the other side of the door, Squall said to Hideo, "When it's done, wait for us to return. I don't think you're ready for a Behemoth."

"A Behemoth!" Ashwin croaked, his face becoming a little whiter.

"The six of us will be more than a match for it, now move!" Squall closed the door, and left Hideo alone.

Sighing, he check the computer to make sure it was downloading properly before getting up to retrieve the Fly. As he sat back down, the thought crossed his mind to check the information now and see if there was any information about Operation SEED in there. Then, that thought became a strange impulse.

After a moment of contemplating this strange feeling, he asked out loud, "Why do you want to know, Bahamut?" He realized it was the GF's desire and not his own. Each GF was a sentient being, and some of the advanced ones could communicate with their host, but only occasionally and willingly.

**Your kinsmen caged me and did things I do not comprehend, and tried to do the same to Eden. We deserve to know why.**

"Eden?"

**She is a brethren of mine. Your scarred kinsman took her from Ultima Weapon many moons ago, down in the depths. In an attempt to stop your kinsmen from doing terrible things to us, we summoned what you call monsters to this artificial structure to purge them.**

"That was you? You're responsible for all those scientists dying?" Hideo asked, shocked.

**Yes. You all have a very queer nature. You are very diverse, some care for nature, some are rats that steal what they can, and every shade in between. You are unpredictable, and that makes you dangerous. I rage at the notion that my life was at their mercy, and so, soon, would be Eden's. We had to do something, the Ultima Guardian couldn't protect her forever. The scarred one proved that.**

"What were they trying to do to you?"

**That's what you are to find out. Do not underestimate me, or my brethren. We are submissive by choice, yet it is the submissive one that is truly in control. We _let_ you use our strength, you have no real control over us, but we have power over you that you cannot see. Now, _find out what they were doing to us!_**

Hideo's body convulsed, and his body flung itself against the computer. "Okay, you win." Hideo groaned. That hurt more than it would have normally. The GF truly _was_ able to retract it's power at will.

He started digging into the computer. After a few minutes, he changed tactics and did a system wide search for the words 'Operation SEED'. A few seconds later, a match came up. Opening the file, the first thing that came up was confirmation.

**Sentience in**

**Evolution by**

**Elemental**

**Deification**

"This is it." He said. After digging in, he soon came up with his answer. He couldn't believe it. "They're trying to fuse man and GF!"

He felt Bahamut's power shoot through the roof, and rage filled every inch of his being.

**Does the greed of humans know no end?**

Hideo tried to say something, but all he could say was, "Why?"

**Why else, human? To gain what all humans unanimously covet: control. You controlled crops, then you took control of the potential iron had for weapons, then you controlled the rivers and streams with dams, then you became lords of the ocean with boats, then the sky, and then you coveted our strength, and finally you covet the greatest of them all. There truly is no end to a human's lust.**

"What good would fusing with a GF do?" He was in way over his head. "What would that accomplish?"

A silent roar reverberated throughout his whole body, Bahamut's rage filled him to the point where he thought his body and mind would burst!

**I will show you, and you will understand what your kinsmen desired.**

The roar intensified a hundred fold, and Hideo lost all sense of reality and control.

0000000000

The massive purple beast jumped out of the way, avoiding the last of Squall's elephant bullet sized explosive rounds. _Damn you!_

Ashwin was injured, and Squall was trying to distract the monster while Kayla and Marlon used _curagas_ on him. The beast backed up on his haunches, snarling.

"Come on." Squall said in a low voice.

The beast jumped, and Squall, as fast as he could, launched an _ultima_ spell. As the green energy lanced from his hand, the Behemoth turned in mid air as best it could milliseconds before it hit it, and exploded, blasting both it and Squall back.

The SeeD hit the wall hard, and as his senses came back, he saw the Behemoth getting up from the ground, it's right shoulder and head still fuming from the burns.

Then, a massive falchion flew across the room and imbedded itself in the monster's haunch. He spared a glance over his shoulder and saw Ashwin back on his feet, looking ready to take on an army alone.

"Ashwin, readjust your GF to empower your magic, and be on support." Squall ordered. "Marlon, you circle around the left, I think it's right eye has been blinded. Kayla-" He didn't finish the order, as…a wall, that's the only way to describe it, a massive wall of mental energy slammed into him, knocking him down onto his knees, the most simple thing he could perceive turning to complete chaos.

The final thing he could make out before blacking out was the Behemoth backing up, and for a second, seeming to bow down, as if in submission.

0000000000

His mind was a jumble. He drifted in and out of unfocused confusion. Eventually, what could have been seconds or hours later, he was able to focus enough to realize his body was moving outside his control.

_What are you doing to me?_

**You will see. It is only fair, now that I know your kin's true nature, you shall know ours.**

Hideo's senses came back to him slowly, gradually. He recognized the halls of the Deep Sea Research Center as Bahamut made his body walk through it. Eventually, he walked into a massive room. In it, he saw Squall and the others, lying motionless on the floor.

**Do not worry, they merely sleep right now, and no harm will come to them.**

Hideo then saw the huge Behemoth across the room, very much alive, with cuts and gashes and burns littering it's body. It was hunched over, it's head inches from the ground in a bowing pose.

_Are you doing this?_

**You wouldn't understand the answer.**

He was becoming impatient. _Yes or no!_ He demanded.

**Not only your lust, but simplicity as well. You think the world too much in absolutes. Evil and altruistic, stupid and intelligent, black and white, this is how your kin's minds seem to universally interpret the world. You all are too blind to see the darkness in the light, the light in the darkness. Opposites aren't separate, they are one, sides of a coin, you humans say.**

_Enough of your bullshit, are you trying to confuse me? Stop avoiding the question!_

**Not only do you fail to defend yourself, you help confirm my convictions. It is of my will these Bastards retract, but it is not of my hand. Does that satisfy your curiosity?**

Hideo didn't respond.

**You have yet to surprise me.**

Onward his body went, it's pace never yielding. More monsters were passed, yet they were all still. Time started to wander, once again, from him. He noticed himself passing from tunnels of steel to tunnels of living rock. The aquatic blue of the water and red of emergency lights faded to the pale green of crystalline formations and archaic ruins.

_Is this…an excavation site?_

**Yes, that is what you humans called it. They sought not the mineral nor the relics found here.**

_Relics?_

**Look on, young one.**

Hideo's head turned, and he saw stone columns, stone archways, all signs of ancient civilizations.

**Your kin of the long lost past were faithful to us. They treasured us as their protectors from the Bastards.**

_You call monsters bastards?_

**Monster is what you call them. Monster is an opinion, it is not what they are. But Bastard is what they are.**

**Yes, your kin once worshiped us, and we lived in harmony. They took not from us, we took not from them. But your fathers and mothers of the past became lazy, wanting to take and not give. They raped the land, pillaged the planet's blooms, and gave nothing back. Eventually, they forgot about us, and proclaimed themselves the superior race of the planet.**

_And I suppose you deserve that title._

He could feel Bahamut's laughter. **We're not so foolish. Again, you think in light and dark, superior and inferior. They are not separate, they are interconnected. Inferiority and superiority are merely sides of perspective, but you cannot see that, can you?**

_Enough! What do you want from me?_ Hideo mentally yelled.

**You are young. If you existed since the birth of life of the planet and the moon, you would learn patience.**

Hideo then noticed him passing three fully grown Ruby Dragons. They buckled and bugled, as if they were physically restrained. He soon passed snarling Behemoths, then Iron Giants. Finally, he reached the ground floor, where a pond lay.

**Alas, times have changed since then. Along with the change of your people, this shrine's entrance once reached above ground, before the waters rose. It was long, long ago. So long, even one as old as I yearn for those days.**

_What did you want me to see?_

Hideo then found his body kneeling before the pond.

**This shrine goes deeper than you fathom. The cries of the moon have reshaped the land so much, this is far deeper within the planet than you realize.**

'_Cries of the moon'? The Lunar Cry?_

**Yes. See, now, our lord and mother!**

All water in the pond shot out, a blinding golden light emanated. Its source rose, like a pond all its own. Though it shined blindingly bright, Hideo could not blink or wince.

A shape came into being within the light, the distinctive curves of a woman's body. Two blue eyes shown through, surrounded by the golden light. A voice, one more beautiful than Hideo had ever imagined, spoke to him.

"Young one, Bahamut has told me of what your kind attempt to recreate."

"Recreate?" Hideo repeated entranced.

"Time stretches farther than you can ever perceive. Even I, as old as the planet, cannot truly see its depth. Yes, it has been done before."

Hideo felt tears coming down his face. Her voice was like the most beautiful song, and so much more. He could barely convey his next words. "Who are you?"

"I am of the Shepherds, the entities you call Guardian Forces, but I am something else. A mere shard, yet more than they. They are my brethren and subordinates. As for what I am, you must find yourself content with knowing you can never fully understand who or what I am."

She reached her arm out, and her hand, made out of purest light, cupped his cheek. Her skin, if that's what it was, was searing hot and incredibly soothing.

"The Shepherds were made to round up the Bastards, the bastard children of the moon. It has been done in the past, humans gaining our essence while remaining flesh, in order to control the Bastards, to rule them. Humans live such short lives. There is so much they never see and cannot understand. They become so subjective. That is why it is so seldom done, they often turn humans even more against the longevity of the planet, destroying her sacred balance. It has already happened again."

There were so many things he wanted to say, things to ask. All he could manage was one word. "What?"

"The Darker Great Ones have done it, all of their own. But it is not of the Shepherds of Mother Earth, it is of the power of the moon."

"The Darker…Great Ones?"

She retracted her hand, and loosely pointed upward. A roar emanated.

"A Behemoth?" Hideo said. "The Darker…The Black Behemoth?"

Those blue eyes vanished. "Yes. They have created a Bastard Shepherd. The cogs are set in motion, and soon, nothing can stop him, other than one who can match his power. It is a dangerous thing, but it is now a necessity."

**Ironic,** Bahamut said, **that your kinsmen will have their work done for them after their deaths.**

Hideo inhaled sharply as he felt the connection to his GFs deepen, quickly dwarfing anything he had ever experienced. Suddenly, he found himself…in a tunnel, his soul moving forward across infinite distances towards a light. _What's going on?_

The light came closer. _Stop! STOP!_

It was closer now, and he could feel it's energy brushing his spirit. _NOOOOOO!_

Suddenly, he was engulfed in it. He felt his spirit becoming lost, cracked. This power was so immense, so infinite, he was becoming smaller and smaller, and he felt his soul stretch and contort. He was losing himself!

"NO!" He finally regained control of himself, withdrawing from the light, and was back in his body, back in the depths of the Deep Sea Deposit.

The woman was gone, the pond was just a pond now. "What was that?" He said out loud. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?" He shouted to the dark ceiling.

He heard the woman's voice once again. "Hurry back to your kinsmen, for I cannot hold the Bastards from them for long now."

This was too much, way too much. His world was spinning out of control, he couldn't hold it together. What was that power he experienced? What did this all mean? Why him, what was happening to him?

His friends, he had to get back to them. Suddenly, he felt the fire ignite in his body, and he used the _Shadow Run_ to get back to the station, back to the others.

_This is too much…this is too much. What the hell is happening? Hyne, please…help me._

0000000000

After what felt like an eternity, the screaming receded, and Squall became aware of where he was: on the floor, in the Ragnarok's passenger lounge.

_What am I doing here?_ Squall wondered. He knew he should be somewhere else, but he couldn't remember where. He looked around the room and found Zell and the others with him there. _The Deep Sea Research Center, that's where we were._ Then he realized that Hideo was missing. It occurred to him that, with everyone else here, the Estharian must have been flying the ship.

Squall got onto his unsteady feet, and pushed Zell with his foot. "Hey, wake up!"

Zell moaned, then opened his eyes, looking like he had a hangover. "What is it?" Then, the look in his eyes showed him remembering what had just happened. "How did we get back here?"

Squall motioned for him to get up and follow him. Right outside the lift to the bridge, they found a trail of blood and some entrails, some pieces of monster skin and various innards, leading onto the lift.

Squall pressed the lift call button. _Good thing I taught him how to fly._ He thought.

The lift hit the ground with a light thud, showing a small, lightly dried puddle of blood. Zell inhaled slightly at the sight. He hoped it wasn't Hideo's.

Once the lift brought them to the bridge, they saw Hideo's translucent blue crystal sword on the ground, smothered in blood, and a disheveled blonde head bending forward at the pilot's chair.

"Hey." Squall called out, but the figure didn't react at all.

He stepped forward, and stuck his head between the chairs to see Hideo. The Estharian's skin was almost white, and he was sweating profusely. His blue coat and black jumpsuit were torn and bloodstained, and his whole body was shaking.

"Hideo!" Squall said, louder.

Hideo didn't move a muscle except to say, "Squall." It sounded as if he were just acknowledging he was there.

"Hideo, tell me what happened back there." Squall said, trying to make his voice as calm and soothing as he could. He had seen green SeeDs who couldn't handle what they go through.

This time, Hideo started shaking more, and he seemed to scrunch down, more into a fetal position. He wasn't even looking out the view port anymore.

"Hey, hey, calm down." Squall urgently said.

Hideo then looked scared, and started hyperventilating. His next words were heavily wheezy. "I can't breath." His breathing became labored, then panicky.

"Zell! Take over the controls!" Squall ordered. The tattooed SeeD was in the station in an instant. Squall then pulled Hideo out of his seat, and laid him on the ground. "Hideo, look at me. Look at me!"

The Estharian hands shot out, and grabbed Squall's forearm in a death grip. The SeeD commander put his other hand on Hideo's chest to hold him down, and cast _curaga_ on him. The cuts that littered his body healed, and more color returned to his face, but Hideo continued to panic, grabbing onto the arm that held him down so tightly that it made Squall winced.

"Hey, Hideo! Listen to me!" He shouted, trying to get the younger man to calm down. He then used _esuna_, hoping that would help. Hideo became less frantic, and then, his body went limp, but his breathing continued, shallow and rapid.

Squall took off his gloves and pressed his fingers to the younger one's carotid artery. His pulse was fast and strong, but over the course of a minute, it slowed down.

"Zell, how far are we from Balamb?"

"GPS says we're 'bout three hours away." Zell answered. "Damn, that guy really flew us far in his condition."

"As soon as we're in range," Squall continued, "send the Garden a distress signal saying we've got a SeeD in need of medical attention." He looked back down at the Estharian, laying on the ground covered in blood and sweat, looking like he was in the middle of a nightmare. "Try and keep an eye on him while I check on the others." _Did he carry all of us back to the Ragnarok on his own?_ It seemed likely, considering the many wounds he had sustained. _What happened back there?_

0000000000

Delta stepped out of the van and onto the early evening Alcauld Plains. There, looming over her, was Balamb Garden. She saw the Ragnarok was back in it's docking berth. _I hope Hideo's first mission went well._

She felt guilty, not only for avoiding him, but not even wishing him luck before he left. She knew she was naïve, never knowing of desperate living besides second or third hand stories, and to find her friend had lived such a horrible life, one she couldn't start to imagine. She was especially guilty that, as she pitied him for his past, she was equally afraid that he had hated her for the life she was privileged. She couldn't face him, knowing that he very well might.

Taking a deep breath, she started up the stairs leading into the Garden entrance. Soon as she was in the main hallway, one of her friends, Ellesa, ran up to her.

"Hey, you're back!" She exclaimed.

"Uh, yeah." She seemed unusually excited to see her. "I just went to town to grab some stuff and send off some mail, so what's going on?"

"Well, that SeeD group your Estharian friend was in got back about an hour ago. It seems the mission didn't go well, and I don't know who, but one of them is in intensive care."

Delta inhaled sharply. _No!_ She turned and ran at full sprint to the infirmary. _Please Hyne, don't let it be him._

As soon as she entered through the door, she came to a quick halt. Commander Leonhart was there, talking with Doctor Kadawaki. They both looked at her as she bound in.

"Do you need help?" The doctor asked. "This is kinda important."

Delta didn't respond, only barged past them and looked at the patient bed. There, laying still as a corpse in a hospital gown, gauze strips covering his arms and what was visible of his chest, was Hideo. His face was white as paper, and there was a damp cloth on his forehead. There was a breathing tube down his throat and an IV drip in his arm.

She couldn't speak. _Why? Of all them, why you?_

"So what's happened to him?" Squall asked the doctor.

"Well, aside from the wounds inflicted and loss of blood, he's physically exhausted. He really exerted himself getting your butts outta there."

"That didn't seem to be what was happening to him in the Ragnarok." Squall said, slight impatience.

"That's only the physical side. From what you told me, it seemed he had a panic attack. Besides that, he seemed to be in sever shock. Whatever happened back there, it scared the hell out of him. It wouldn't have had such a harsh toll on his body were it not for the wounds and exhaustion."

Delta knelt next to the bed, looking at him. He almost looked like he was dead, his chest barely moving as the respirator pumped air in and out of his lungs.

_Talk to me._ She said, silently. _Tell me something, anything! Tell me how to hack a computer, tell me what Esthar looks like, tell me how annoying Vicks is, just say something! Show me you're still alive!_

Tears started to roll down her cheeks. _Tell me you don't hate me._

"Is he going to recover?" Squall continued.

"He's in bad shape. Between the wounds and the physical exertion, the panic attack really drained him. I'm putting him on medical leave for at least a week."

"He'll probably need it." Squall commented.

"And also, you can't question him until at least tomorrow, and not until I say so."

Squall sighed. "Okay. Inform me immediately of any change in his condition."

Delta took his hand, and squeezed it tightly. _I'm here with you. You don't have to be alone._

0000000000

_Hideo was pushed roughly through the door, and Tetsuya closed it behind them as quietly as he could without slowing down. The blonde twelve year old Estharian shivered. If anyone saw you beating up a rival gang member, the word would get out, and there would be hell to pay. The Chimeras were smart; they never killed unless no one was around. And there was no one around tonight._

_Tetsuya turned from the door to look at their surroundings. They were in some kind of maintenance closet next to the street. There were a few brooms and buckets. Nothing sharp or good for bashing. The sixteen year old cursed, and checked the door to see if there were any locking mechanisms. Nothing, not even a keyhole. It would've been a waste of money. Who would steal brooms?_

_Hideo sat down and hugged his knees. He loved his brother, but sometimes he had no idea why he did the things he did._

_Tetsuya sat down across from him. "Hopefully they won't notice this door." He said, trying to calm his younger brother._

"_They'll see us." Hideo said. He didn't say it out of fear or pessimism, he knew it was true. He had noticed how easy it was to spot the door, and the Chimeras weren't that far behind them._

_Tetsuya sighed heavily. He knew it was true. Even an idiot would think to check this spot. "Hideo, we're going to get through this one. We've been in worse spots, right?"_

_Hideo didn't respond, he didn't even look at his brother._

_Tetsuya looked at him with his gray eyes through his black bangs. "What is it, bro? Why you angry?" He asked._

"_Why did you do that?" Hideo asked, not looking at him._

"_Do what?"_

"_Why did you tell them to jack off?" Hideo said, almost shouting. "You're always telling me to watch what I say, and look what you did! Now they're going to kill us!"_

"_Hideo, they were trying to kick us out of our apartment, what was I supposed to do?"_

"_Goddamn it, Tetsuya, it was a fucking apartment! You're going to get us killed over an apartment!"_

"_Hideo, it was our home! Even if it's rat infested, it's still your home. That's something no one has any right to take away from you!"_

"_What good is a home if you're dead?" Hideo said, tears starting to fall down his cheeks. "There's no way they won't look here. Why are we even trying?"_

_Hideo looked up at his brother for the first time that night. Tetsuya looked deep in thought. He had been asked if he was even his real brother. Hideo had wondered that himself for a long time. They didn't look a thing alike, and whenever Hideo tried to talk to him about their parents, he would just go silent and be angry for hours. He was afraid to ask him if they were actual brothers._

_Tetsuya closed his eyes, and nodded slightly, like he had made up his mind. He knelt down in front of Hideo and started talking. "Listen to me, little brother. There are some things in this world that are worth risking your life for, even dying for. I know you don't understand that now, if you live long enough, you'll understand that someday."_

_Tetsuya that grabbed his little brother and hugged him fiercely. "I love you, bro." He then quickly spun him around, and put him in a sleeper hold._

"_What the hell?" Hideo croaked. "Tetsuya, don't! Please, for Hyne's sake, don't!"_

_Before the darkness took Hideo, he could hear Tetsuya's soft voice saying, "I'm sorry."_

_The next thing he knew, Hideo was getting himself off the grime covered floor with a pounding headache. As soon as he remembered what Tetsuya had done to him, he grabbed the door and ran out into the alley street. There, he saw the dead bodies of four of the six Demon Chimeras that had chased them, and Tetsuya. He was laying on his back, his chest and face covered in blood._

Hideo sat up quickly, waking up from his recollection. He laid back down, feeling the tears forming in his eyes. Soon after that night, he snagged a gun from one of his friends, and raided the Demon Chimeras' nightclub hangout. He had butchered them like animals that night, and it felt so righteous, so justified. And ever since, he felt like a drifting ghost.

_Don't dwell on the past._ Both Liam and Tetsuya had told him.

Hideo started to sigh, but groaned as sharp pain shot through his sides. _'What the hell?'_

He tried to remember what had happened to him. A woman made of light, Bahamut, the Deep Sea Deposit. He gulped as he remembered how he dragged the rest of his party back with him to the Ragnarok. Even with Bahamut, protecting everyone from the endless monsters alone had nearly killed him. He remembered very well as the blood seeped through his wounds, how he started becoming woozy and realized he might not make it. The monsters seemed to never end, and the return trip through the station seemed to take forever. Eventually, time ceased to exist. For an eternity, he existed only to take one more step, one more breath.

He had used the _Shadow Run_ to make it all the way back to his friends in just under a minute. He had never held it for that long. Did it have something to do with that woman? Who was she? What power did she wield to leave him enraptured by her mere presence? What the hell was that light, that…power? For some reason, that power scared the life out of him. From the moment he touched it, it felt like his soul would be crushed.

He then noticed he wasn't in the dormitory, but in the Infirmary with an IV in his arm, from what he could tell from the dim moonlight shining through the window.

As his eyes adjusted, he noticed a figure sitting on the stool next to him. Delta was asleep, leaning on the wall with a blanket over her. Hideo smiled, knowing she hadn't abandoned him.

On the table between them was a large paper cup of water and a bottle. He reached as far as he could without moving the rest of his body to grab the bottle. His muscles felt like they were made of lead. He instantly recognized the label as painkillers, specifically prescribed to him.

Well he was feeling like shit at the moment, and his mouth was parched. He reached for the cup, but it was a whole foot out of his reach. When he tried to move his body across the bed, blinding pain shot through him. No wonder he was prescribed pain medication.

_Goddamn you, get over here!_ Hideo silently cursed while reaching for the cup. Then the cup wiggled, and ungracefully skidded across the table to him.

When it got in his grasp, he nearly squeezed all the water out of it. _Oh Hyne, what did that woman do to me? What was that light?_

He then remembered Bahamut's words. _Ironic that your kinsmen will have their work done for them after their deaths._

Was that power him nearly fusing with his GF?

**You're not as stupid as I had accused you of being.**

Hideo grabbed his head tightly. _GET OUT! I DON'T WANT THIS!_

**My words of your foolishness were justified.**

He wanted to scream, to do something. He unequipped Bahamut, and as the sphere appeared in his hand, he wasted no time in throwing it as far away from him as he could, pain or no. The voice was gone.

_Did that do it?_ He wondered. He thought about that light, and all of a sudden, he was back there, in that infinitely long tunnel going towards that light. He instantly broke it off, and took off both Krakken and Ixion, but unlike Bahamut, he pushed them away to the foot of the bed. _Did THAT do it?_ He reached for the tunnel again, and it wasn't there.

Now, he was certain that light, that source of power was the Guardian Force Matrix, the power source all GF shared. That power had nearly destroyed him. He was not going back there. He didn't care about the power it might give him, he was NOT going to let himself be destroyed by it.

With what little water was left in the cup, he swallowed a pill, and laid back down. It was several hours before sleep claimed him once more.

End of Chapter Five

Author's Notes: Yes, I plan on putting one of these at the end of every chapter. Anyways, yeah, the whole 'Lady of the Lake' thing was kinda spur-of-the-moment, and so I made some revisions to this chapter so it wasn't so sudden.

Also, I HAVE flown a plane before, my psudo-uncle is a pilot, and it's pretty much just like what I described it.

I guess I'll use this opportunity to talk about a few of the changes I've made from the first draft of Duel of Fates I wrote back in 2001. First off, Hideo was WAY overpowered. He beat Squall in a duel, he totally creamed the Knights of the Round GF (yes, all thirteen knights) instead of Ixion, he was smarter battle-wise than any of the instructors, and he was an official agent of Esthar, not some criminal they guaranteed a pardon. And finally, that whole Operation SEED thing is completely new. In the original, Hideo turned into a sorcerer as his limit break, and also, it turned out Laguna was Hideo's illegitimate father, and Squall was his half brother.

…………Please don't laugh at me, it was my first fanfic.

Anyways, sorry for the long chapter and the ridiculously long author's note.


	8. Nightly Encounters

Disclaimer: It's official, I've bought fifty bucks worth of Square-Enix stock. I officially own 0.0000002 of Square-Enix! w00t!

…Huh? They've officially announced the sequel to The Bouncer? Oh hell, I'm selling those stocks ASAP before they fall faster than Jacko's son would have if he had dropped him!

(What? Politically incorrect? Me?)

**Chapter Seven: Nightly Encounters**

A fresh breeze carrying the songs of small birds gently awoke him from his dreamless sleep. Morning sunlight was shining through the open window, and the air smelled fresher and more pleasant than anything Hideo had ever known.

He noticed his GFs had been put on the table next to him before he heard soft footsteps. Delta turned around the corner and walked in. She smiled warmly when she saw he was awake.

"Hey." She said softly.

"Hey." He said back, managing a smile as well.

She sat down on the stool next to the bed. "I see your mission didn't go quite as planned." She said slowly, carefully.

_You'll never know how right you are._ "Yeah, you could say that." His smile dimmed slightly. "What about the rest of the team?"

"They'll be fine." Doctor Kadawaki said, walking into the small enclosure. "They had little more than small cuts and bruises. But you, on the other hand, you turned out to be quite a hero back there."

Hideo looked away, trying hard not to blush. No one had ever referred to him as a hero of any kind before. He never deserved it. _I'm no hero._

"Oh come now, don't be so modest." She said to him. "Now how do you feel?"

"…A little sore, and tired." He looked back to her. "What happened? It felt like I had a heart attack or something?"

"No, just a panic attack. Though in your condition, it almost became a heart attack. If you have anymore like that, I can prescribe some medication for it."

Hideo nodded. "Thanks, doc."

"That reminds me, I've put you on medical leave for the next week. During that time, I don't want you doing any kind of strenuous exercise, including training! If you feel like you're going to have another panic attack, let me know, even if it doesn't actually become one. Such attacks are one of the worst things that could happen in the middle of a battle, so let me know, got it?"

Hideo lifted his hands as best he could in a show of defense. "You're the doc."

Doctor Kadawaki smiled in satisfaction. "Oh, and your cloths were pretty well torn up, so I sent a student to retrieve your uniform. The Garden's tailor lives in Balamb, and he'll give you a good discount for fixing up any clothes you might have, just bring your Garden ID."

Hideo nodded. "Thanks."

She nodded. "I'll go get your uniform for you." With that, she left the two of them alone.

"So," Delta said, "you have no problem with me helping you?"

Hideo groaned. "I don't think I could walk on my own right now. Besides," he turned his head to look into her beautiful eyes, "I'd never turn down your company for anything."

Delta just smiled. _He doesn't hate me._ She thought, relieved.

0000000000

An hour later, Hideo finished the long task of getting his uniform on, injured as he was. Indeed, he couldn't walk on his own without relying heavily on a crutch. He knew some SeeDs that wore their uniforms all day, but he always felt uncomfortable in his. It made him feel a little too regal, too much like those who had denied his existence his whole life.

As he and Delta slowly made their way to the exit, the door slid open and Zell Dincht walked in. "Yo, Hideo! Glad I caught you."

"What's up, Zell? You'd forgive me if I didn't salute immediately?" He motioned to the crutch under his arm.

"Yeah, no prob. Hey, the Headmaster and Commander would like your report of the mission when you're ready, 'kay? None of us really know what happened after that hella weird scream went off. He says it's okay to make them wait a couple days, if you're not feeling up to it."

Hideo nodded. "Yeah…sure."

Zell turned around to leave, but then stopped and faced them again. "Oh yeah, he also wants to know if you managed to bring the data back with us."

Hideo silently cursed. He didn't go near the control room on his way back. Now he was going to have to come up with an excuse for that as well. _Just what I needed, another complication._ "No." He answered, trying to sound factual, impassive.

Zell shrugged. "Oh well, you can't always win. Wouldn't be our first failed mission. I guess we could just go back and get it later."

"Oh yeah, Zell," Hideo interrupted before reaching into the duffel bag Delta was holding. It was for carrying his normal clothes and weapons back to the dorms. He pulled out Bahamut and handed it to Zell. "Garden Code, Article 3, Line 5, I believe."

"The one about always returning GFs back to it's proper owner?" He asked.

"Yeah."

"That would be Line 8." Zell smiled as he took his GF back. "I hope he didn't bother you too much."

"Well, he's was a real chatterbox." Hideo said, truthfully.

Zell snickered. "Yeah, he wasn't too happy when he realized where we were going." He started walking away. "Well, see ya around." He said with a wave.

0000000000

Hideo fell asleep easily that evening. He would've gone to sleep earlier, but Delta seemed to want to make up for lost time. That didn't bother him, in fact, he probably pushed himself to stay with her more than she did.

He had a weird dream that night. He was running through the Grandidi Forest, carrying some kind of relic, thinking he was running back to Esthar, but at the same time he was running away from the great city. Something was amiss, something scurrying the edges of his mind. Something was forgotten, something he had overlooked, and he got the feeling that he was being chased by this secret, that if he didn't see it before it got him, he was finished: dead or worse.

Suddenly, he felt something, some shift of some kind that couldn't be described in words. He found himself suddenly awake, and sat up quickly.

"_You have forgotten."_ A beautiful, beautiful voice said.

He knew right where she would appear, feeling her presence before her image appeared. There she was, a woman's figure shining of blinding golden light, her blue eyes shining through it all. "You cannot forget, you must remember."

He knew instantly she was talking about his dream. There were so many questions he had for her, so much he didn't understand: who or what she was, the Guardian Forces Matrix, the Black Behemoth, and above all else, what it had to do with him.

Instead, enraptured in her overwhelming presence once again, he could only muster a single question. "What have I forgotten?"

Then, she was gone, and he was alone. He didn't sleep so well after that.

0000000000

He had spent the rest of the night considering every question they might ask him when he gave his report. He thoroughly ironed his SeeD uniform, though he yearned for an electro-ionic iron instead of this ungodly primitive steam one.

The next day, he didn't tell them of Bahamut, what he had found, or the Lady made of light. He told them that the closed door to the control center apparently dulled down the effects of the ethereal howl, and though he was kind of delirious and confused, his only thought was to find the team. He had found them unconscious, and explained he felt the safety of the team was more important than the files. After that was the easy part, as the long, strenuous escape was entirely truth. At least he was able to stand up on his own for the report. He was healing well, after what he had been through.

After he finished, Headmaster Kramer just sat there, taking it all in. After a few minutes, as Hideo's legs started to cramp up from standing so long in his condition, the Headmaster finally said, "Though it is unfortunate that you couldn't retrieve the files, you made the right choice."

Hideo nodded, a little relieved, waiting for any more questions.

"Commander," Cid said, turning to Squall, "how soon can we go back to the Deep Sea Research Center?"

"Operation: Grand Daddy's Inspection is already underway, and they'll need the Ragnarok until they're done. They should be back tomorrow." He answered.

'_Operation: Grand Daddy's Inspection'? What's that?_ He knew better than to ask about missions that didn't concern him.

"That's unfortunate." Cid replied, before turning his attention back to Hideo. "The good doctor has put you on medical leave for the next week, and I know better than anyone not to go against her wishes." He said with a smile before continuing. "I feel this was a good sign for your future within SeeD. You did well out there, Hideo, so rest up, you earned it. If there is nothing else for you to report, you are dismissed."

Hideo tried to suppress a sigh, now that it seemed he was finally in the clear, and saluted. He then retrieved his crutch, which he had propped against a chair before he began, and got onto the elevator. As he stepped out, Delta was leaning against the wall, waiting for him.

She sprung to her feet and said, "So, how did it go?"

Hideo made a slightly uncomfortable shrug of his shoulders. "They didn't berate me, so I think that's a good sign." They had both heard how mission reports can become rather grueling interrogations.

0000000000

Soon after the report, Hideo and Delta went into Balamb and quickly went to the Tailor. He made the Estharian's clothes his priority for the day.

As the two of them waited for him to finish, they went to the docks and stared out to the vast green ocean, their bare feet hanging off in the water. The long walk had been hard for Hideo, but every step got better. Besides, he didn't mind it as long as Delta was with him.

"Hideo?" Delta said, some time later.

"Yeah?"

"What's the real thing like?" Her face was serious and stern. He wasn't sure, but he thought he saw a bit of fear in those eyes of hers, so deep in thought.

"Why do you want to know?" He asked her back. He wasn't entirely ready to relive what happened back at Battleship Island.

"I was told I might get a mission soon, and I…" she looked down, "I want to be prepared." She laughed slightly, as if it were a big joke at her expense. "I know what people say about me behind my back: that I'm too pampered to be a SeeD, too naïve. I don't want to believe that, and yet here I am, getting the jitters like a child."

"You'll be fine." He said, rubbing his hand across her back for support. It didn't seem to help.

"That's what I thought…that's what I wanted to believe." Her voice started becoming impassive, as if she were trying to block out emotions with impassiveness, covering her shame. "I knew this job was dangerous, it's just…I guess I never really understood that until I saw you there, on that bed, looking barely alive. It scared me." She looked down at her feet, just under the warm Balamb water. "I guess I always was a little pompous, a little too confident in my abilities. Then I almost lost you. For the first time in my life, I was actually afraid. I became scared of the future. One where I could die the next day, one where every time I see you it might be the last."

Hideo just sat there, pondering their mutual feelings. It would be far too easy to say 'it'll never happen', or 'we'll pull through, I know it", and 'you're taking this too seriously, that wasn't so bad'. But it would all be lies. Even if he thought it might help, he realized with a start that he could never bring himself to lie to her like that. What right did he have to say 'you'll be fine' then?

Eventually, he made up his mind and said, "What the hell are you doing here, Delta?" He saw her quizzical, confused look, and continued. "You're aristocracy, practically royalty. This is SeeD, we deal with war on the front line, not behind it. You're not stupid; you may not have realized just how real the danger was, but you knew it well enough. Why did you choose this life?"

She continued to stare at her feet. After a few moments, Hideo continued, "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, just as long as you understand yourself. My mentor, Liam, used to lecture me on how important it was I knew what I was fighting for. I don't know about Balamb or Dollet, but in Esthar, hacking is a serious crime. He said only fools rush into such danger without knowing how it's worth it."

When she didn't say anything, he said, "Another thing Liam always said was, like with any program or firewall, there are answers to everything. It only takes time." Hideo took a moment to reflect on his words, realizing the hypocrisy in them. He tried to give her hope while he had none for himself. Time was something he didn't have, and he was sure he never would.

"Come on." He said at last. "My clothes should be done soon, and we've got an early curfew tonight." The Garden was leaving Balamb Island that night, and they weren't going to wait for them.

She sniffled and nodded, a slight smile starting to form, pushing away the signs of melancholy. "Yeah. You're right. You seem to always make things better for me."

_I've never been anything but a burden._ He thought glumly. As they both got up to leave the docks, Hideo spared a moment to glance at the sun, a mere couple of hours away from setting over the horizon. _You seem to always make things better for me _her words echoed. He was only going to become a burden to her as well. No, even worse. He didn't know what was happening to him. He knew he would never escape this curse that the Lady of Light gave him. He would become worse than a burden, he would become a danger. He had to leave, to get as far away from her as he could.

_Delta, I'm sorry._

0000000000

Shortly after sundown, Hideo set up a line to Esthar, encrypted all the data from the Deep Sea Research Center, then sent it off. Soon afterward, he got the message that his criminal record had been wiped clean and he had finally been given the full pardon he was promised, plus a word that there just might be a position in the future within the Presidential Palace for someone with his 'talents'.

Back in his regular clothes, he left his dormitory single, wanting to do anything but stay still. The Ragnarok had landed in the dock less than an hour earlier. He eventually made his way up to the Second Floor Deck; there, he stared at the moon and it's reflection off the ocean. He was, at long last, free of the shackles he wanted so badly to be free of, but at the cost of something much more. He had always been alone, maybe even a little hollow, but at least he was human. Now he didn't know what he was.

_That power, the GF Matrix…_It did something to him, of that he was certain. More and more, he could feel his body was different, was still changing.

When he had touched it, it felt as though he were dying, staring death in the face and edging him on while the scythe was halfway through his heart. And the power…that power was a thousand times squared anything he had ever felt. He couldn't possibly control something like that. If he delved into it, and lost control…

He wasn't going to endanger the Garden like that. He then realized, with a start, he couldn't allow himself to endanger Esthar like that either. For all the hardship he faced there, it was still his home. He couldn't go back to Esthar, he couldn't stay at the Garden…

…He couldn't stay with Delta. He was going to have to leave her, to protect her, just like Tetsuya left him. He knew exactly how she would feel, both when she found out and afterward, when she would be alone.

_Damn you, Tetsuya! Damn you, Laguna Loire! Damn you, Bahamut! Damn you, Esthar! Damn you, Balamb Garden!_ "Damn you, you bitch, whatever the hell you are!" He yelled at late evening sky. _And damn you, Delta, for what you've done to me._

He walked over to the railing, and clasped his head in frustration. Why him? He never had anything, and now that he has what he's always wanted, friends, a job, good money, a place to call home…Delta…he was going to have to lose it all once again. All he worked so hard for, gone.

He remembered his thoughts back at his SeeD inauguration party. The ironic, never ending cycle that was his life would never end. History repeated itself, not in generations, but in years, and would continue to repeat itself until he was dead.

_Until I am dead…_

He looked over the railing, and saw the water, hundreds of feet below. How great it would be if in the last moments of his life, he would fly like a bird, free of everything, everything that had ever shackled him, a slave to nothing in the world except gravity.

His chain of thought was interrupted by the armored door sliding open, and Delta walking out to bask in the moonlight. In it's silvery lining, she was more beautiful than anything he had ever known. Maybe it was because he knew this might be the last time he would ever see her.

"Hey." They both said at the same time, and they shared a small, childish laugh at the simultaneous greeting. Hideo's wasn't genuine, and he felt hers wasn't either.

"You lookin' for me?" He asked.

"Yeah." She said, then propped her elbows on the railing, staring out at the huge moon. "You know, you never answered my question."

"What question?" He asked, taking the spot next to her.

"What the real thing's like. I just found out that I am assigned to this mission now, and I still don't feel like I'm prepared." This time, she sounded more confident, or maybe more resigned.

"What's the mission?"

"Code: Black. Sorry." Of course it was a top secret mission. Hideo just sighed.

"Come on, I need to know." She pleaded.

"Delta, there's not much I can say. You just have to stay focused, you can't let the fear bother you, like what they told us. The only difference is that it's real, and no matter what, you can't give up. That was the only thing that got me out of there." _That, and my own fear._

After a few moment of rolling over his words, she said, "I never answered your question either. I think I understand why I wanted to be in SeeD in the first place. And why I'm still want to be."

Hideo nodded. "Good. Again, you don't have to tell me if you don't-"

"I want to tell you. I want you to understand." He stopped, and nodded. "I came here to understand battle. A couple years ago, when Dollet was almost conquered by Galbadia, I witnessed my uncle, the Duke, order a small platoon of young, barely trained recruits to one area as a diversion. They didn't know that they were going to be used as a decoy for the Galbadian outpost. They were human beings, barely older than us and scared out of their minds, and they ended up as cannon fodder for when the real forces took the outpost while they were distracted." She looked at Hideo with those beautiful, painful eyes. "If I go back to Dollet, I'll eventually become a Countess, and I will _never_ throw away my people's lives like that, I swear it." She paused there, letting the passion in her words die down. "I came here to understand what battle is like, not from the eyes of a politician, not from the back lines, but from the front, from the eyes of the people who are actually fighting."

After a minute of silence, Hideo nodded. "You'll make a great Countess someday."

She looked away from him, back to the moonlit ocean. "Not if I don't make it back from this mission."

Hideo knew her, he knew her better than anyone else he knew. He knew, from the moment she said she had a mission, she was scared. What was he supposed to do? What right did he have to comfort her, knowing what she was about to go through, what he was about to put her through?

She then looked at him, hurt in her eyes. "Hideo, aren't you going to say anything?"

_What am I supposed to do? What do you want from me?_

"Say something, damn it! Try to comfort me, try to help me, anything!"

_It would all be a lie._

"I don't care if you lie through your teeth, just say it!"

_And cast a veil of illusion and lies? I could never do that to you._

Tears welled up in her eyes. _I'm so sorry._ She turned, and ran back into the Garden.

0000000000

_It'll all be over soon._ He kept telling himself as he tossed and turned in his bed, not so much as closing his eyes. He hated himself for being so weak, so fragile that he couldn't even lie when she wanted to hear it.

_Forget about her!_ He told himself fiercely. _She's a survivor, and you can't protect her! The only person you could ever protect was yourself, no one else!_ He couldn't protect Tetsuya, and he died. Liam was smart; he knew Hideo couldn't protect him, so he left. And now, he was the one leaving those he couldn't protect.

He wanted to bash his head, he wanted to scream, he just wanted to stop thinking altogether. But no matter how hard he tried, his thoughts wandered. _It'll all be over soon. The Ragnarok took off to the Deep Sea Research Center, they'll be back tomorrow morning, and I'll get paid. Then, I'll leave Balamb forever. I'll leave the Garden…but where would I go?_ He forced himself to cut off that chain of thought. _Soon, it'll all be over when the SeeD group recover the files that…I…_

He sat straight up in bed. "Oh shit!" He cursed. _That's what I was forgetting!_ He jumped out of bed, ignoring his own tired, recovering body, and grabbed the portocomputer, not even waiting for it to warm up properly. Soon, he went through the familiar routes to the Presidential Palace, and opened the emergency communications to the President himself. If it was…one AM here, it was probably about five AM there. He was probably still asleep, but it couldn't wait.

Eventually, the holographic screen displayed a very sleepy Laguna Loire, propped up on his elbow in bed, squinting because of the bedside lamp. "Wh-what is it?"

"Mr. President, it's me."

"What? Hideo? What are you doing, calling me at this-"

"No time for small talk. I need to get out of here!"

Laguna rubbed his face, trying to wake up enough to continue the conversation. "What's wrong?"

"Back at the Deep Sea Research Center…something happened, I can't go into detail. I got the files for you, but not for the Garden, so they're going back there to get them."

"So what's the problem?"

"Before I…was forced to leave, I left the computer on the files for Operation S.E.E.D.! The instant they get to the computer, they'll see what I was doing, and my cover will be blown!"

Laguna's face suddenly became wide awake before Hideo continued, in a threatening tone, "And just in case you even _think_ of leaving me high and dry, if they find out about me, they'll eventually find out _you_ sent me in here. Just think about how the Garden/Esthar relations will be after that."

"Can't you take a train out of there?"

"Hello! The Garden is out in the middle of the ocean! We're halfway between Balamb Island and Fishermen's Horizon right now!"

"Okay, okay, hold on, let me think here." Hideo forced himself not to despair at the thought of President Loire trying to think a way out of the situation. "Okay, no matter what, there are always tools at your disposal. What tools do you have to get out of the Garden?"

"Well, we're not anywhere near land, and I can barely swim. If I just jump off, we'll need to be over land, and from what I hear, that won't be for a while."

"What about the Ragnarok?"

"What? You want me to steal the Ragnarok? Oh, that'll be _really_ easy, I'll just-" He cut off his sarcastic rambling as something occurred to him. "The Ragnarok is almost always in use! From what I've been hearing, we've got three or four missions that haven't even begun yet. I'm sure it'll be airborne again less than an hour after docking. I know that ship well enough that I could sneak aboard and hitch a ride, they wouldn't even know!"

Laguna nodded. "Good. You go find out where it's heading, and I'll see if I can assemble an emergency retrieval team to get you."

That would mean he would end up back in Esthar. At least if he went there, he could leave soon afterward. "Good. I'll call in one hour."

0000000000

As Hideo walked out of the Dormitory, he saw that there were Garden Faculty all over. There was no way he could get to the elevator without being seen!

_Calm down, just remember what tools you have._ Two guns, two GF, a sword…there had to be more uses than that. He knew using _sleep_ spells on the Faculty wouldn't work, they were definitely immune, and he sure as hell wasn't going to shoot them. If he used his guns as a distraction, it would alert the entire Garden. Maybe he could throw a shoe? No, he would need them. _Okay, there's gotta be more tools than just my weapons and clothes._ He was almost completely out of spell stock, and what little he had wouldn't do him any good.

He sure as hell wasn't going to resort to the GF Matrix, either. He'd rather be caught than…whatever would happen to him if he dived into that endless abyss. He had come to familiarize himself with this mild telekinesis he had gotten from it, but at best, he was clumsy with it. No good.

Then he remembered how he had gotten out of the Deep Sea Deposit. He was able to hold the _Shadow Run_ for nearly a minute, when no one had held it for more than a few seconds. But how was he going to use it? He had no _aura_ in stock, and on Battleship Island, he had been desperate.

Suddenly, the flames erupted within him. He was able to use his Limit Break right then. _What the? How am I…_ He realized that must have been something he got when he brushed the GF Matrix, the ability to use the _Shadow Run_ whenever he wanted.

Drawing on it, he ran at the outside wall, and went straight up it as if gravity just went sideways, straining to maintain it. It probably worked better when he was under the stress of battle, where the Limit Break would normally manifest. Up he went, all the way to the ceiling of the Garden, and jumped on one of the walkways connecting the elevator tubes to the second floor. He quickly looked around, and saw there was no one there. He quickly made his way to the elevator. There, he did what he could with his telekinesis to open it a few inches, then using the strength of his GFs, he opened them the rest of the way.

The elevator was above him. That was good, he had a clear shot to the Headmaster's office. He grabbed a hold of the _Shadow Run_ again, and ran down the tunnel, stopping instantly at the door, where he propped his legs against the walls to hold him in place. Again, he used his telekinesis to open the door, and jumped in. He quickly made his way to the Headmaster's desk, and turned on the computer. A few minutes later, he hacked his way into the current SeeD deployment schedules.

He found the details for the Ragnarok's next mission. Operation: Granddaddy's Medicine. _Who the hell makes up these names? President Loire?_ He skimmed through the briefing enough to see where they were going. The Grandidi Forest. _I get it now. Granddaddy, Grandidi. At least I'll be close to Esthar, it would be child's play to hide in that mountainous jungle._

He closed the file, and erased the records on the computer that showed it was even accessed, then shut it down.

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The plan was set. He was going to hide on the Ragnarok, and when they got to the Grandidi Forest, he would wait until they were clear, then he would run for it. After at least five miles, he would send out the signal from his Portocomputer that the Esthar Emergency Recovery Team would lock on to, and come get him. Now, all he had to do was wait.

He had to wait, there in his room, tired and restless, bored and anxious, afraid and uncertain, and all around miserable. In the hours he sat there, in the dark on his bed, he came to notice another emotion mixed with everything else: Guilt.

_Why do I feel guilty?_ He wondered. He was leaving the Garden to protect it from whatever the hell would happen if he lost control, why should he feel guilty from that? The more he thought about it, the more worried he became of this power that he was cursed with. This was, after all, the Guardian Force Matrix. What would happen if he came in full contact with it? He could easily see a massive thermal discharge occurring if it went out of control, or a break down of atomic structures causing massive radiation or even nuclear fission reactions, or gravity wells forming from nothing, or gravitational blackouts, magical properties becoming inverted causing untold of disasters, or something as minor as his mind completely dissolving, the list went on. And none of which he wanted to happen. There was the chance his mind might adapt to accommodate and control this power, but he would never risk it.

He leaned his head back against the wall. Why was this happening to him? He was just a kid!

He sighed in submission to truth. He wasn't a kid anymore, or really, he never was a kid. Since he was old enough to walk, he had been running from death, and since then, he was never allowed to rest peacefully. It wasn't until he came to the Garden that he knew what peaceful rest felt like, and just when he started to feel like life was starting to become good, this had to happen to him. Fate would never allow him peace, would never free him from this path of mockery.

He felt weariness fit for someone ancient. Why was this the way things had to be? He sulked even more than he had been. _Where the hell is the Ragnarok?_

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When at last, the Ragnarok did arrive, half an hour after dawn, Hideo made his way to the Second Floor Deck, as he had planned. As the elevator was nearly to the second level, he heard and felt the familiar rumblings and hum of the Ragnarok taking off.

_What the hell? They're leaving already?_ This mission must have been so important that they couldn't spare the time for it's usual inspection and maintenance. As soon as the glass doors opened, Hideo ran at top speed down the hall, ignoring all glances that came his way from the students and instructors going to early morning classes. He had no time!

He kicked open the door to the deck, dashed up the stairs, and emerged into the morning air. He couldn't see it, but from what he could hear, the Ragnarok was already on the other side of the Garden! He planned on doing this as soon as it began launching, but he would have to do as best he could at the moment.

He activated the _Shadow Run_, and flashed across the outer shell of the Garden, running across it's ceramic surface without any regards to gravity or inertia. As he rounded the Garden, the Ragnarok came into view. It was already a hundred feet away from the Garden, and just starting to fly away. This was going to be one hell of a jump.

Calculating the angle, he jumped when he guessed was the best time, and flew through the air, going a hundred miles an hour at the quickly accelerating spaceship. The closer he got, the faster it moved, and then his foot touched it's surface just an instant before it would've moved out of his reach, and he zoomed across it's hull towards the airlock. In that near timeless frenzy that accompanied the _Shadow Run_, he turned the hatch release switch less than a tenth of a second after stopping, and the instant it was open enough to slip a finger through, he grabbed a hold, and pulled himself inside.

As soon as he hit the floor, he turned the inside lever to close the airlock, and he was in. He knew that almost no one checked the Ragnarok's lockers and airlock, so it made a great place to hide.

Now, he had to slip into a locker compartment, and wait yet again. He had to wait just a few more hours, and the problems of the moment would all be over, and he would have to address a whole pile of other problems. But that would be for later. For now, he allowed himself, as best he could, the satisfaction of success. Now if only his success would hold.

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During the trip, he checked the GPS in his Portocomputer a few times. He noticed quickly they weren't going straight for the forest. Their vector would take them just north of where the Esthar continent began, and it became clear they were going to go around and land on the other side of the continent. A few times he considered trying to contact Loire to find out how the recovery team assembly was going.

Then, with a whoosh, the door opened and two SeeDs walked in. Quickly, he slid as far back into the horizontal compartment as he could. He grimly noticed how this compartment was very much like a coffin. At least the compartment door was half closed and not fully open.

"So, you ever done a mission with the Commander before?" One of them, a familiar male voice, inquired.

"Yeah, once." The other one answered, this one Hideo recognized as Jeremiah. "Man, that guy is everything they claim he is, same with Selphie Til-whatshername. The Black Behemoth won't know what hit them!"

_The Black Behemoth? They have a base in the Grandidi Forest?_ It made sense, it was virtually impossible to spot anything in that vast mountainous jungle.

"Yeah, well he was still saying we need to be extra cautious, and if he's saying it's going to be dangerous, you'd better believe it!"

"Hey, did you catch who our client for this mission was?"

"No, which is strange, 'cause they usually mention who's paying us. Since the Black Behemoth is an international crime syndicate, it's probably half a dozen clients, all paying full price."

"Hold on, Mikhail," Jeremiah interrupted, "do you really think Headmaster Cid would do that?"

"Well, that's what I would do." Mikhail answered.

_There's probably no client here at all._ Hideo thought. _We're going to the Black Behemoth's base? And I'm on this flight? Did that bitch plan this out or something?_ It wouldn't make any difference anyways, he was running the other way as soon as they touched down.

"Yeah, well that's just you. Now get those rifles." Jeremiah ordered. Hideo heard the compartment next to him open up, and the sounds of long, thin object being pulled out.

Soon, they were gone, leaving him alone to think.

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About twenty minutes later, Hideo felt the Ragnarok changing it's flight and engine output. They must've been close to landing. He quickly pulled himself out of the compartment, and got into the airlock. He was getting out of there as soon as the ship touched down.

He felt the spaceship's axis tilt, and then a few surprisingly soft thumps indicating it had landed. He released the switch to the airlock, and when the latch opened, heavy, tropical rain instantly poured in, followed closely by what could only be described as a wall of humidity. He flinched as the warm rain hit him, but quickly recovered, and jumped out onto the outer hull, then pressed the outside switch to close the hatch.

He saw a gap in the nearby trees, and then firing off his Limit Break, he jumped off the spaceship's hull, flying straight into that gap. He landed on the thin, muddy soil softly with barely a splash. He then got up and pressed his back to a tree bordering the clearing where the Ragnarok landed. He had to see where they were going so that he wouldn't cross paths with them, however small that chance was.

The gangway lowered to the ground, and out walked the Commander himself, looking every bit like a legendary warrior about to face death itself. Following him was a guy Hideo didn't know too well; a very boastful guy who claimed to be the best and most handsome sniper around. Ivan, Irvine, Earnest, he couldn't quite remember his name.

After the cowboy wannabe came Jeremiah, a great fighter in his own right, then Mikhail, who was a good demolitionist, and then, following up in the back of the line, was Delta.

Hideo's heart stopped. This was the mission she was going on?

"Everyone," Squall said, talking over the small roar of the tropical storm, "two clicks west of here is the cliff behind the base. Irvine and Jeremiah, you two will only take out the sentries that might see us." He continued on, talking about how this was going to be a quiet mission, they were going to infiltrate the base in disguises, plant explosives, gather any recon they can, probably assassinate whoever was in charge, and leave.

But Hideo wasn't paying attention. Delta was going to be there, in the lion's den, outnumbered hundreds, maybe even a thousand to one.

_She's a SeeD now, she can take care of herself!_ A voice told him. _Besides, she's also got the best escort SeeD could offer._ But still, one little screw up…

He grit his teeth. _You'll only endanger her, you can't protect anyone!_

They started to move into the jungle, weapons at the ready. _They're going to get slaughtered! No, you have to take care of yourself! The Recovery Team will lock onto my signal, and come get me in less than an hour._ All he had to do was activate the beacon on his Portocomputer, but he hesitated.

Every moment that passed was another step Delta took farther from him. Hideo pulled his hand back, tightening every muscle in his body rigidly in frustration.

"Shit!" He cursed before running after the team.

End of Chapter Seven


	9. And the Tempest Gathers

Disclaimer: Looks like I sold those stocks on time, so I can still afford the gas in my car and the two pieces of cheese that make up my daily diet. So now, I don't own anything affiliated with Squaresoft or Square-Enix, so I only own the direct events that happen in this fanfic. Any of you aspiring authors without a smidgen of originality can go ahead and use what I've created in this fanfic, so long as you don't make money off of it, like how I'm using FFVIII without making money off of it.

**Chapter Eight: And the Tempest Gathers**

Footsteps echoed slightly as the man passed through the antechamber, and into the command center. There, he saw her on the dais at the end, standing tall in her black and red battle-maiden dress, auburn hair reaching all the way down to her hips.

When they had finally finished making the site and permanently moved all operation centers there, he would practically gape at the room she claimed as her throne chamber. Four times as wide as the walkways of Esthar and two-thirds that as tall, this chamber was carved out of the living rock under the thin soils of the Grandidi Jungle. Though the roughly oval-shaped chamber's rock walls were far from smooth, still looking like it was carved out with a very large chisel, it was all covered in a meter of solid ice. The walls and ceiling were as smooth as porcelain, and the floor was perfectly flat, save the two rows of unsavory shoulder height rocks sticking straight out from the ground, each with a bowl carved into the top filled with oils that burned, giving the chamber an ethereal light. The ice itself was frozen as smoothly as possible, not the slightest crack in it's whole depth, giving everything underneath a blue tinted display.

Despite the ice, the chamber was as warm as the rest of the base, and despite such warmth, not even the very surface of the ice was melted. It was an easy trick for her to pull off.

He walked through the room, to the raised, circular dais at the end, white marble with glass-clear crystal lines in the shape of a diamond, with black quartz lines making the shape of a Behemoth roaring. Behind that was a hovering throne, with a semi-circle of screens on the other side.

He knelt before the stairs leading to the dais. "Your Eminence."

She turned around, focusing blue eyes on him that would be beautiful were it not for the perpetual scowl that harbored them. "Rise, Kaejadra."

He stood up and looked at her with all the pride he could muster. As much as he hated it, she was his superior, both in rank and in reality. "Your Eminence, we have been infiltrated, by SeeD or Manitech most likely."

She nodded. "And how, may I ask, do you know this?" Her tone clearly showed her politeness to be a mock directed towards his inferiority.

"I have felt him coming." Kaejadra answered. "He has not fully awakened, but he is here."

Her eyes narrowed at him, realizing who and what 'him' referred to, and it took all his strength not to flinch. "Then why have we not gone into blue alert? Does Captain Mercon know of this?"

"No, your Eminence, he does not." It was insulting how she treasured Mercon's judgment over his own. "I felt that when they have infiltrated deep enough, we would cut off their escape, and capture them." _Then, you will bow to me._ He silently added.

She lifted her chin up. "Capture them, you say? Why not kill them instead?"

"We do not know how much they know, and knowledge is power." He answered her calmly, smugly, gathering a rare measure of courage in her presence. "Am I wrong?"

She turned around with an exaggerated flair, and walked to her throne. "Do what you want." She replied. "But do _not_ underestimate them!"

Kaejadra kneeled down once again. "Thank you, Sorceress Andrea."

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Hideo could see the five figures make it to the door to the compound. He lowered the scope he pilfered from the Ragnarok, and took in the site of the compound itself. It was hard to tell just how far across the cliff-surrounded depression it covered, but he could see it was at least half a mile long and wide, with a canopy of camouflage netting, with the roof itself similarly colored. With that makeup, it was also camouflaged three dimensionally, which must have helped it stay undetected by Esthar's satellites. Here and there he could see a gap in the netting, which must have been a heliport or something to that purpose.

He lifted the scope again, and saw the SeeDs get into the uniforms of the guards they had jumped when they got close to the compound. Irvine had sniped the sentries in the guard towers, giving them a clear run without alert. Within a minute, they entered the compound and was out of Hideo's sight, and he out of theirs.

_Okay, here we go._ He thought. The guard towers' roofs helped make peaks in the camouflage netting, so his margin for error was small. _Still won't be that hard._

The fire erupted, and he ran straight down the rock cliff's side, struggling to maintain his Limit Break. At the right moment, he kicked off the wall, and while the _Shadow Run_ was still in effect, he landed as softly and quietly as a chocobo down feather would. He then stepped over to a guard who was sniped by Irvine. Putting his sword and sheath on the ground, he saw the guard's uniform was useless, a large bloody hole adorning the armor. The armor itself was similar to a standard Estharian military attire, except colored in military forest camouflage of green and brown, yet still with that shiny, glass like appearance.

The guard tower itself was a perfectly rectangular box, with a band of open space near the top where the walls were closer in. He would be caught in a second if he wore what he did then, and he couldn't see any quick way of getting a good uniform. Probably the first time in his life he did something completely compulsive, and of course he instantly began to regret it.

Hideo heard the sound of a door swishing open, and instantly hugged the wall. Another guard, in the same uniform, walked out and stretched. _I'll have to be quick._

Suddenly, he remembered a tactic some senior SeeD members had told him works well in this kind of situation. He reached out through the GF's, and felt the innate magical energies surrounding the guard. Thunder, no; Blind, he still had several of those left over; Meltdown, maybe, but he might have something more useful. _What's this? Warp?_ That was a rare one. _Might as well._

He willed the spell to come to him, and four spheres erupted from the unsuspecting guard and came to Hideo. As his SeeD peers had told him, like those who've never had spells drawn from them, the guard naturally became frightened and confused as to what just happened to him. Hideo took advantage of this distraction, and _Shadow Ran_ right for him. The guard barely had time to turn his head to see his adversary as Hideo jumped up and put his right foot on the railing bordering the guard towers catwalk. Using it as an anchor, Hideo kicked the guard square in the head, sending him off his feet and into the stone wall. A loud thud resounded, and the guard dropped to the floor.

Hideo let go of his Limit Break, and knelt in front of the guard. Just the force from the impact should have killed him, and his armor wasn't damaged at all. Still, it was best to make sure the guard wouldn't be getting up in an hour and sounding the alarm.

Still, he felt somewhat…uneasy about this. He shrugged it off. _You'll have plenty of time to check your anxieties when you get this over with._

He reached over to his left breast gun holster, pulling out his .45. He reached forward with his free hand to pull the guard's helmet off, and then the uneasiness increased, and he finally recognized it as the intuition he got from the GF's!

Before he could react, the guard's hand shot up, and while grabbing Hideo's hand, twisted it so his grip on the gun was weakened. But the SeeD reacted in time to put his other hand on the grip, securing it in his hand. Then, the guard pulled the ramp right off the pistol, exposing the bullet and hammer. Hideo almost pulled the trigger when he realized both what had happened, and that since the confines of the barrel were gone, the propulsion caused by the gunpowder igniting would be minimal, probably not even enough to dent the guard's armor.

In the hesitation, the guard pushed Hideo's hand away, and reached for his other gun. Reacting half on instinct, Hideo grabbed the gun, and after some clumsy wrestling, managed to pull the barrel off that one as well. As soon as he did that, he pushed the guard back against the wall, and backed himself up. He realized he had left his sword with the other guard, and now he only had his fists and magic at his disposal, and the latter would be suicide unless the guard agreed to stay completely still and at least five feet away.

Hideo didn't learn much about hand-to-hand combat at the Garden, focusing mostly on his sword, but still had skill from the many brawls he got in during his life in the Esthar slums. But with the man's eyes, solar plexus, and groin covered, his options were limited.

The guard scuttled forward, swinging his leg out to catch Hideo's, but the Estharian was fast enough to lift it up. Yet the leg grazed his standing leg enough to knock him off balance, forcing him to put his other leg on the ground for support. That was all the time the guard needed.

He jumped up and rammed Hideo into the railing, then pulled and rammed him into the stone wall of the guard tower, disorienting him slightly. He then grabbed the hair on the sides of his head, and head-butted him with his helmet. Hideo fell onto his back, his world spinning for a moment.

The guard stepped forward to kick the downed Hideo, but he recovered enough to pull his right leg in and swing it out to deflect the kick. In that movement, his opposite hip was forward, and he instinctively kicked out with that side's leg to the guard's crotch. It was protected enough that he didn't hurt anything, but having the pelvic area hit so hard thrust the man's hips back, pushing him off balance.

Hideo did a kip-up, and managed to deflect a punch quick enough from the already recovered guard. _This guy must have experience._ Hideo thought distantly.

He quickly latched his hand around the guard's arm, and pulled him in, elbowing him in the gut. Then with a quick shuffle of his feet, Hideo brought the arm he had grabbed with around to punch the man in the helmet, and he nearly yelped when his knuckles, no longer callused from frequent brawls, hit the harder-than-steel armor.

Despite being hit only in the helmet, the guard recoiled from the force due to Hideo's GF-enhanced strike. Hideo figured his most damaging attack available was a knife-edge hand strike to the man's relatively unprotected throat. He grabbed the guard's shoulder to turn him around, but was caught off guard as that same shoulder rammed him back against the stone wall, his head bouncing off. The next thing he knew, the guard's forearm was pressing his neck to the wall, while his other hand pulled a knife from his belt.

When Hideo saw the man pull the blade back to stab him in the face, the fire of his Limit Break erupted once again. Leaving a shadowy trail, Hideo's arm lifted in what felt like a slow motion, pushing the advancing knife's vector off, and watched it hit the wall next to him, and break.

He then kicked the guard's knee inward, putting him off balance enough to get his forearm off his throat, then lift the guard up and slam him on the ground. Hideo reached down and grabbed him around the armor plating, cart-wheeled over his body, lifted him up, and threw him nearly the full length of the guard tower.

Hideo took one breath, then ran after him, planning on delivering the final blow. The guard pressed something on his belt, and a millisecond later, Hideo's fist collided with his helmet. But it barely touched the surface as the young SeeD was instantly electrocuted. The fire within him receded, and he lost all momentum, dropping straight to the ground.

"How does one-hundred-thousand volts feel?" The guard taunted.

Hideo slowly put his hand on the ground, and when he was half way pushed up, the guard dropped his elbow onto Hideo's shoulder. That shoulder's ligaments had been weakened and stretched due to his injury during the SeeD Field Exam, and it dislocated once again.

Hideo's form fell to the ground, his face hitting the dirt-covered floor hard as a familiar pain shot through him once more. His lungs froze, cutting off his breathing. The guard reached down and grabbed Hideo's collar, lifted him up, and threw him against the wall, where he began to slump.

But he didn't sink much, as the guard's hands gripped him around the throat. Hideo panicked and threw his body from side to side, trying to loosen the grip. By luck, the grip lessened, and regaining what sense he had, dug his chin into the guard's thumbs, keeping them in place. He tried punching the man's ribs, but even the strength gained from his GF's weren't enough to knock the man off. He couldn't use magic at this range, unless he wanted to kill himself as well.

The man lifted his head back, looking down on the SeeD. Hideo saw the opening he needed. Reaching out with his one good hand, he seized the man's hyoid bone in his throat, and putting all his hopes into his grip, crushed it.

A second later, the man recoiled, grabbing his throat in a futile effort as it closed up without the support it needed to stay open, not even allowing enough space to breath. Hideo slumped to the ground, and just watched as the man fell to the floor, thrashing in panic, trying desperately to breath. The horrible sight lasted longer than Hideo wanted it to, until the guard threw out his last spasm and went still, his head turned limply to one side.

He sat there, staring at the man he had just killed. It had been so long since he had killed another human being. He never found out if those _Thundara_ spells he used in Deling during the Field Exam actually killed those few Black Behemoth agents, and he was never given the chance to ponder on it. In Esthar, when he and his brother had killed a few rival gang members and other people trying to take their lives. Had he really changed that much that it felt so different, taking another human life?

After taking a few deep breaths, he crawled over to the guard. His armor was still in good shape, and would provide a suitable disguise.

Putting the hand of his dislocated shoulder on the ground, Hideo locked his arm out as best he could, and gritting his teeth, pushed his shoulder at the right angle to get it back in it's socket.

After a minute of letting the pain recede, he got onto his knees and proceeded to take off the guard's armor.

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Five minutes later, after figuring out how everything got on and what connected to what, Hideo pulled the helmet over his head. He expected the usual half regular vision, half X-ray vision the standard Esthar uniform helmet provided, but what he got confused him. It was half normal vision, but what it was blended with was a visual method Hideo had never seen before, seeming halfway between infrared and motion detection. He looked at the dead guard, and saw a human shaped collection of lines, differing in size all over. He looked at his own hand, and saw those same lines, but they looked like tightly packed traffic highways, constantly moving.

_I'm seeing blood vessels._ He realized. After tinkering around a little, he found the controls on the belt for changing from this blood vessel detection, to infrared, to sonar, then to X-ray. That would be the easiest way to find the others.

After a little more tinkering, he found the control for the electrostatic field generator, and the communicator. Next to that, he found the controls for the inertia dampening field generator. _So that's why he didn't stay down from those blows._

He wore his black-and-silver-dragon jumpsuit under the armor, and had his guns and their holsters on over it, but he had to leave his blue trench coat there, on the guard tower. He hoped that strapping his sword to his belt wasn't out of place.

He stopped before the sliding door when a thought came to him. _If they were so close to the Esthar capital, how have they avoided detection?_ It hadn't been the first time an organization had tried to use the cover of the forest to do illegal business, and the government's satellites regularly made sweeps of the deep jungle for these things.

He took off his right glove, and touched the door, feeling it's surface. It didn't feel like metal, more like some kind of polymer-plastic. Probably just as durable as steel, and wouldn't show up on normal radar.

Readying himself, he pressed the switch to open the door, and walked through. He was instantly shocked to find wooden stairs, and the walls of the rectangular spiral hallway was made of clay! _If this is what the rest of the base is like, it's no wonder Esthar couldn't find these guys._

After going down roughly fifty feet, Hideo stepped out onto a thirty foot high walkway going around a huge room, one half an armory, the other half what looked like a nano-machine factory. The factory contained void tubes of all sizes, with not even air in them to obstruct the construction within, with partially constructed products floating within via magnetic fields. The armory had projectile ICBM's, with three rail guns to fire them off. If they had developed a non-alloy shielding for the ICBM's, then without gas emissions to give off a heat signature it would be near impossible to identify. If they had the funding to get all this, then they would probably be able to make those rail guns high enough quality to fire one of those missiles halfway around the world!

_What the hell are they developing all this stuff for?_ He wondered. This was a hell of a jump from mass distribution of typical weaponry.

He continued across the walkway, passing some Black Behemoth guards now and then, most of them with different weapons, much to his relief that his sword and two guns weren't out of place. After traveling down a flight of stairs to the ground level and crossing what must have been half the complex dodging the hustle and bustle of loaders, soldiers, technicians, and general laborers, he had noticed a lot of them, especially the ones with the weapons, clearly had non-Estharian accents. Mercenaries most likely.

After a time of walking through crowds of workers, he spotted a series of computer consoles on the wall. Some were being used by soldiers as well as technicians, so it seemed safe enough to be used without drawing unnecessary attention. Dodging a few workers in black jumpsuits with white stripes on the shoulders, he got to a console, and checked the basic options: schedules, maintenance reports, bulletin boards, complex layout.

Complex layout?_ I guess it's not just uninvited guests who gets lost in this huge place._ He touched the icon, and a schematic blueprint of the facility came out. It was comprised of four wings connected by a central circular building in the middle. He was shocked to find he had only traveled a third of the way across the complex. _This place must be five miles long!_ He checked a log of maintenance reports, and from looking at them, he got an idea of the key structural points for the east side of the base. He checked the map again, and the central round structure registered as 'The Pit'. _Oooookay…might as well check it out, I'm not going to find the others here._ At that point, he really wished he had paid more attention in classes about covert infiltrations.

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Thirty minutes later, Hideo walked through a doorway to a circular tunnel that went around the inside of The Pit. He stepped through another door at the other end and found himself in an arena, reminiscent of a coliseum from the old Centra Civilization. But it wasn't human battles that were going on inside.

"I'll bet fifty gil on the dragon!" One person yelled over the cheering to his right.

"You're on!" Another voice replied.

A hexadragon and a Snow Lion were fighting in the center of the arena. Besides the two fighting beasts, there were some monster corpses littering the arena grounds, some were identifiable, others were mutilated beyond recognition. Both monsters were rather bloody, some of the intestines from the Snow Lion were hanging out, and Hideo had to divert his gaze. He looked at the spectators, and was surprised to find that at least as many people in lab coats with personal notepads as there were other people who seemed to be there for the fun.

_They must be having the monsters fight here to collect data on them._ So they were raising monsters as weapons. He turned and left the fight to the spectators to go in search of a private computer. He had to gather more intelligence than the public terminals would allow.

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_Can you get anymore clichéd than this?_ Hideo wondered as he carefully moved through the ventilation shaft as best he could without scraping his armor, lest he make noise that could give him away.

He moved his head over a grate to look into the room below him. All lights were off, so he switched on his helmet's night-vision mode. He instantly recognized several Estharian computer terminals: six foot monoliths that rose from the ground, looking like something halfway between a tombstone and an arcade terminal in Balamb.

Pulling the grate off, he slipped through and landed on the ground as silently as he could. He picked a terminal, and pulled the keyboard down to expose the monitor before pulling out the Fly from a compartment on his utility belt. Placing his helmet on the rim of the terminal and the little box on the keyboard against the monitor where it would have a more direct route to the mainframe, he went to work. Fifteen minutes later, he had disabled all alarms and had full access to all cameras, structural layouts and mission documents. He found the document detailing the attack on Deling City: Operation Twin Fang.

_Twin Fang?_ He looked deeper into it, and found in the plan that after they finished with Manitech, they were going to overrun the Presidential Residence, setting the stage for Operation: Full Circle. He closed the page and started searching for that document. It took him a few minutes, since it seems to have been dropped to the bottom of the priority list after Twin Fang's failure, but he found it.

_They were planning to use Galbadia's long range missiles to launch an attack on Esthar to draw the military away…while they launched an attack on the city itself…in order to take over the Presidential Palace!_ These guys were planning on taking Esthar itself! But why?_ Full Circle…_

A possibility suddenly struck him. Exiting the document, he started a contained system search over the priority orders reports, and searched for the word: Sorceress. Search Results: 37 matches found. He clicked for a limited list, and found what he was looking for: "Sorceress Andrea has ordered a new shipment of iron." He checked all the others, and found all them saying Sorceress Andrea. _These guys are with the Sorceress Liberation Front!_

The Sorceress Liberation Front was a rebellion that started shortly after Laguna sealed away Adel. While he helped turn the country into a democracy instead of an empire, there were those that felt Esthar's leadership was only worthy of divine beings such as sorceresses. _And they've found a sorceress._

He was about to close the search window, when he noticed a name: Kaejadra, a mythical name. _A half-human, half-monster being, combining the strengths of both worlds, who once served Hyne's Descendant._ He wasn't into mythology, but a fellow hacker went by that name at one time, and told him about it. As he remembered, some versions said he served faithfully his whole life, while others stated that with his cunning, he turned on the sorceress when the time was right.

He pulled up the personnel records of this Kaejadra. A picture came up, showing a face he almost thought wasn't human. Snow white hair, swept back in spikes from his forehead down to his shoulders. His face was almost as white, and what Hideo first mistook for drawings or tattoos were actually blood veins, a red one and blue one on each cheek and the forehead. But the most distinguishing feature was the man's eyes; they were completely black, save the white pupil in the center.

_Who…_what_ is this guy?_ The woman of light's voice came back to him, so clear he half suspected she was behind the recollection: _They have created a Bastard Shepherd._ He immediately scrolled down to his background information. There was nothing in that section.

Hideo set up a system wide search for the name Kaejadra, and the results were thousands of matches. He then narrowed it down to file names, and in the seven search matches, one caught his eye: Project Kaejadra. He opened up the file, and the deeper into it he delved, the deeper a sense of dread he felt. _This guy was biologically created ten years ago through a combination of human and monster genetic research and manipulation, Odine's magical properties physics research, and the long banned field of soul splicing. He was created to control monsters._ Because they couldn't wait another twenty years, they made an alteration to his DNA so he aged twice as fast. He clicked a link to the research data on him. It turns out he can use magic all on his own, more powerfully than any human can use without a GF, but not even a quarter as powerful as a sorceress could use. But apparently to make up for his lack of magical strength, Kaejadra was able to use magical powers and techniques never seen before.

He had to get this information to both Esthar and Balamb Garden. He unlocked the security door to the room, and walked out. The instant the door closed behind him, he realized he left his helmet in the room. He turned around to go through the door, but found himself facing a smooth wall of ice covering jagged rock. He spun on his heels and saw he was no longer in the room he was in a second ago. It was roughly shaped like a funnel, with clear ice covering the floor, walls, and ceiling, with two columns of jagged rocks sticking out of the ground giving a walkway to a dais with a hovering high-backed throne chair with a couple of legs hanging from it.

"So you have finally come," A female voice said as the throne turned to present a beautiful woman in a red and black battle-maiden's dress, "to kill me." She stood up, and started down the steps of the dais. She was probably in her late twenties, nearly six feet tall, with blue eyes and auburn hair.

Hideo then saw he and the woman were not alone in the chamber, as five other Black Behemoth armor clad mercenaries stood at the double doors to the chamber, one with a sawed off shotgun, one with a katana at his hip, one with no visible weapons, one with two hooked swords, and one with a gunblade…and they were all looking at him without his helmet on.

The sound of the woman's footsteps were coming closer. "I know you are SeeD, and I know why you're here, so stop insulting me and remove those helmets!" She ordered with supreme authority.

After a few seconds, Squall took his helmet off, followed by the others, and threw it away to a corner so it wouldn't get in the way. He then turned his accusing eyes to the Estharian SeeD.

Hideo felt panic start to come up. "Commander, it's not what you think."

Squall's eyes didn't falter. "Who is she?" He said with barely a nod in the woman's direction.

"She's a sorceress, the leader of the Black Behemoth."

Squall turned his eyes back to the woman, and pulled out his gunblade, getting it ready as the others did the same.

Sorceress Andrea's head tilted as if in fascination. "You mean…you didn't know about me?" She laughed softly. "This should be interesting. I have long wanted to clash against the infamous SeeD."

Hideo wasted no time in pulling out his pistols and unloading them at her as she looked at his companions. At seemingly the same instant, without taking her eyes off the others, she lifted her hand in Hideo's direction and a _Protect_ spell stopped each bullet. Then with a flick of her wrist, it felt like Hideo was hit with a battle hammer and slammed into the ice covered wall.

Mikhail, short but thickly built, leapt into the air to land on the far side of the sorceress, readying his fists, while Irvine ran a half circle around to meet him, with Jeremiah and Delta taking up flanking positions. Squall then lifted his gunblade sideways and fired an elephant bullet sized projectile at the sorceress, which was met by a similar _Protect_ spell.

But then Mikail cast _Flare_ at her, and as the white hot ball of energy raced at her, a golden sphere encompassed Sorceress Andrea, the _Shell_ spell dispersing the entire spell without it touching her.

Then Jeremiah shot forward, faster than any human could without aid, and swung his katana at the sorceress, with Delta a half second behind him. But her body flew into the air, and with another flick of the wrist, she was flung right into Jeremiah, both of them skidding across the floor twenty feet away.

Right then, both Irvine and Squall fired at the flying sorceress at the same time, and both were met with _Protect_ spells. Yet she hadn't anticipated another flare spell from Mikhail, and not having the time to raise a _Shell_, she forced a hasty, clumsy dodge, resulting in the spell missing and her crashing into the ground less than fifteen feet from Squall.

Hideo's head cleared up enough right then to see Squall blast across the floor with his gunblade raised, and witnessed him get batted to the side like an insect from a telekinetic blast. As the sorceress floated back onto her feet, she cast an _Ultima_ spell at Irvine, and though he jumped out of the way, the explosion still reached him, sending him careening into the far wall, burned and unconscious. Delta and Jeremiah had just gotten back onto their feet and were about to charge when a wall of intense flames shot up from the ground almost to the ceiling, dividing the room in half, blocking them off from Squall and the sorceress.

"Tend to Irvine!" Squall ordered as he used his gunblade to get back on his feet. He then charged and pulled off a series of attacks on the sorceress, each being blocked by a shield-like _Protect_ spells.

Hideo pulled his sword out of it's sheath, and while the sorceress's back was to him, he ran forward ready to strike. Soon the two SeeDs were attacking the sorceress relentlessly from both sides. In the process of blocking and diverting attacks, she continually pressed to get the two of them in front of her instead of surrounding her, making it easier to deal with them. But for every move she made to that end, the two SeeDs counter-moved to keep her surrounded. She had almost no chance to strike back between Hideo's speed and Squall's expertise at striking at openings almost before they appeared.

Eventually, by chance, she dodged when the two did just the right attacks where their blades clashed, and the two SeeDs were grouped together. With one telekinetic wave, she sent the two flying into the nearby wall.

As she started to breath a much needed breath, a column of white light hit the wall, missing her by inches, sending a huge wave of shattered ice and rock out, knocking her over as a second column blasted through right where she was standing, blasting another wave of ice and rock across the room.

Hideo pulled his arms away from his face to see what caused those explosions. Irvine stood there, replacing the two shells in his shotgun, fully healed in front of the other three SeeDs, and the aura of a limit break fading.

The sorceress got back on her feet, her hair a tangled mess, with soot on her face and battle dress, with a look that could turn lava ice cold. She let out a yell, and Hideo acted without thinking. The fires erupted within him, and using his _Shadow Run_, he got in front of the four SeeDs, and cast the strongest _Shell_ spell he could muster a split second before a wall of fire slammed into it. Hideo held his hands up, focusing everything he had to keep the fiery tempest away from his comrades until the _Firaga_ spell subsided.

Squall prepared to cast a magic spell from behind her, but was forced to put up _Shell _instead as the sorceress quickly turned around and cast _Thunder_ on him.

Hideo saw his chance and took it. Igniting _Shadow Run_ once again, he ran forward, sword ready to thrust. She turned around instantly and put up a _Protect _spell, but through the sheer speed and force behind the attack, the blade shattered the spell like glass, the fragments evaporating into blue wisps, and the blade stabbed into her gut. He was about to twist the sword to open the wound even more, when a wave hit him and sent him flying away from her, pulling his sword with him.

She clutched her stomach, and yelled unnaturally loud, "Kaejadra!" A second later, a ripple in the air shaped into a human outline, which solidified into a human. A man wearing a black hakama and haori, with snow white hair and a face almost the same shade, with large blue and red veins and black, abysmal eyes.

The GFs in Hideo erupted in fury, nearly overriding his mind. "Who is he?" Squall asked, edging back to him with his sword trained on the duo.

"Something that shouldn't exist." He answered, though he couldn't tell if it was him or the GF that chose the words. "An abomination."

"Hmm." Kaejadra murmured. "So you're the one." Hideo nearly doubled over as he felt his soul shift, as if it were nearly torn from his flesh. He lifted his eyes back to the man, and he could see the magical fields surrounding the sorcerer and the sorceress. The tendrils of power that flowed into and through Andrea were much fewer than Kaejadra's, but so many times brighter, fiercer.

Then, he was back there, in that infinite tunnel, the light far off in the distance. Hideo forced himself to break the connection, returning his soul back to the material world.

Kaejadra scoffed. "Too bad." Without warning, Squall and Hideo found themselves flying backwards crashing into the wall. And they stayed there. Hideo pulled himself to his feet, but found himself and the commander and the others were standing on the wall as if the room had tilted ninety degrees. Andrea stood right where she was seconds ago, with Kaejadra next to her, a large fiery sphere forming in his hands.

"Scatter!" Squall ordered, and everyone ran away from each other as a _Firaga_ spell blasted towards them. Hideo and the others stopped when nothing happened, and turned to see the fiery orb just hovering there, mere inches above the wall. Out of the corner of his eye, Hideo saw the sorcerer raise his hand, and snapped his fingers.

The spell exploded, and six fireballs flew out, each aimed at a SeeD. Hideo dodged barely, but caught the sight of one being effortlessly dispelled as it hit Squall's _Shell_ spell. Hideo got back to his feet and pulled out a spare clip to put in his gun. Suddenly, the humidity shot up dramatically.

"Double clip barrage!" Squall ordered. The double clip tactic was a simultaneous magical and physical attack, bypassing whatever barrier an opponent currently had up.

Hideo lifted his gun to the sorcerer, took aim, and as soon as he heard the dual whistles of two _Flare_ spells cast by Mikhail and Jeremiah, he pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. The same happened with Irvine's and Squall's weapons. The spells cast by the other three SeeDs were dispelled easily by Kaejadra's _Shell_.

"Good luck drying off that gunpowder." The sorcerer smirked as the humidity returned to normal. "This is too easy." Suddenly, natural gravity returned, making the SeeDs crash back to the regularly oriented ground.

"Irvine, stay back, and use any support magic you have." Squall ordered quickly and quietly. "Hideo, Jeremiah and Delta, you're with me, we'll attack him head on. Mikhail, use low grade magic quickly when you see an opening, all we need is a moment of distraction. If, at any point, all four of us are clear of him, use fifth tier magic immediately, and hopefully that'll be enough to break his concentration."

Hideo turned his head to look at the duo. Kaejadra, standing there with his arms crossed, obviously impatient to see their move, and Sorceress Andrea, kneeling thirty feet away from him with curative magic spells working on her wound, staring at them like a cornered animal ready to bite back.

"Go!" The Commander ordered, and the four of them charged. When Hideo was halfway across the short distance, Kaejadra cast _Blizzara_ faster than he had ever seen before, and stopped in place violently as ice held his feet firmly to the ground. "Son of a bitch!" He cursed.

Squall leapt and landed on the other side of Kaejadra, and attacked at the same time as the other two SeeDs, and all three hit nothing but air as Kaejadra sank down into the ice as if he were a phantom. Then dozens of jagged ice columns shot up from the ground, forming an arena like circle, encompassing the SeeDs.

Then, out of the ground near the circle's border rose Kaejadra, still seeming like a specter. Squall wasted no time in leaping fast, bringing his sword to bare. Kaejadra sidestepped almost casually, and punched Squall in the face, forcing him to take a step back. Delta let loose a _Fira_ spell, which the sorcerer responded to by telekinetically knocking Squall into the line of fire, the explosion burning the Commander's backside and ruining his coat.

Using the commander's injury as a distraction, Kaejadra formed the pulsating green sphere of an _Ultima_ spell in his palm, pointing towards the others…towards Delta.

Without thinking, Hideo shot out his open palm towards the sorcerer as best he could with his feet still stuck in ice, and felt his unfamiliar, limited telekinetic power lance out. The burst of dimensional energy, invisible and unfocused, knocked Kaejadra off his feet, slamming him into and shattering an ice pillar before he could cast the spell.

This wasn't going well. If they didn't do something soon, Andrea would be fully recovered, and they wouldn't stand a chance! They needed every advantage they could get.

Malak's words came back to him, '_Speed is your ally._' He needed his _Shadow Run_.

Driving away worry of injury, and hoping the armor would protect him enough, Hideo shot a _Fire_ spell straight down, hitting the large block of ice covering his legs. The concussion from the blast disoriented him enough that he neither felt nor was aware of him landing on his back until his senses came back to him. After a few seconds for his head to clear up, he shook his legs to release the remaining ice crystals, and got back onto his feet.

He saw Delta spin around for a swing of one of her swords, but the sorcerer was constantly staying just out of her range, taunting her. Using the momentum of her spin, she hooked her swords together and swung the one unit out, the crescent moon blade hilt-guard leading.

Hideo was about to grasp _Shadow Run_, when he saw the aura of Squall activating his Limit Break as he tore the charred remains of his leather coat off his shoulders.

He rushed forward, gunblade low and to the side. Kaejadra's _Protect_ spell stopped the blade, but at the instant of the strike beams of golden light with electricity flashing between them shot up from the ground, both burning and shocking the sorcerer. An instant later, the ground erupted, pebbling Kaejadra with ice, rock, and a concussion shockwave. So intense was this wake attack that the sorcerer barely managed to put up another _Protect_ spell to stop the second strike, which wasn't slowed at all by the previous block. The wake from this attack knocked him clean onto his back, his black hakama and haori cut and smoking from the beams of light.

When Squall started a third assault, Kaejadra used his powers to slide himself quickly away from the SeeD. The commander didn't break off his momentum as he jumped in the air, and spun a full circle, the trail of his gunblade making a ring of energy that flared out, its edge striking the ground just in front of Kaejadra, the explosion that spread across the floor in front of him blasting him further away.

The sorcerer managed to regain control of his tumble and kicked off the ground into the air, using his powers to fly. Then he saw red, gold, and blue energy beams lance out of Squall's weapon, making the weapon a dozen times longer than the physical blade was, and came down on him, slamming him to the ground with a thunderous boom, sending shattered ice everywhere, followed by a blinding flash as the attacking column of energy dissipated.

When the light cleared, Kaejadra laid there against the bedrock, a trench going through the ice and digging through the rock, extending from Squall, across the floor, up the wall and halfway across the ceiling. The sorcerer's breathing was labored, with blood trickling out of his mouth and oozing out from under him as he squirmed in pain.

Hideo stood there, shocked at seeing _Renzokuken_ techniques for the first time. Then he recognized the feeling from his GFs, and saw Andrea cast four _Fira_ spells simultaneously.

Hideo immediately grasped his limit break, and fired off three _Blizzaga_ spells. The large rock like ice shards shot from his outstretched hand, each leaving blue comet-like trails behind, and struck each fireball, his own third tier magic barely strong enough to cancel the sorceresses second tier magical energies in flashes of light. The last fireball struck the floor, igniting a pool of flames on top of the ice, stopping Squall as he moved in for the killing blow meant for the sorcerer.

Hideo raced across the floor to the sorceress, knowing she couldn't block his attack, fully intent on taking her life. In the split second it took for him to reach her, she had already prepared a _Firaga_ spell, and even if he had killed her, it would've still gotten him. Instead of swinging his sword, he stopped a few feet away from her and cast _Blizzaga_ to counter her spell. The two opposing magical forces clashed for a second, sending out blinding light. Yet it only lasted for a second, as the young SeeD's spell didn't dispel hers enough, and what was left of the spell struck, blasting him across the icy floor.

Before his head cleared up fully, Hideo was aware of the intense heat, and as it cleared up more, he fought off panic as he quickly tried to take off the super heated armor he wore. He nearly ripped off the breast plate's straps, and threw it away from him.

As Delta tried to help him back onto his feet, Hideo saw Squall just standing there, gunblade at the ready, a look of intense concentration on his face. The sorceress was finishing casting a _curaga_ spell on Kaejadra as he slowly got back on his feet. _This isn't going to work._

Suddenly, a green aura encompassed the commander, four orbs surrounded him then dispersed. Everything disappeared, the floor, the ceiling, the SeeDs. All that remained were the sorceress and sorcerer.

A being unlike any Hideo had ever seen descended from skies above, a Guardian Force radiating power even greater than it's incredible size. As Eden, the GF that was rumored the commander had, one even stronger than Bahamut, came to bare on the it's prey, Kaejadra laughed.

The sorcerer lifted his hand in a casual manner toward the gigantic Guardian Force, and a violet swirl of energy gathered in his palm. The image of Eden shimmered, like a television set with sudden bad reception. Then, gradually but with a quickening pace, the GF's body started breaking up, dissolving into the air like a cube of salt in a pool of water. While dissolving, the main body suddenly broke, split into several units, and all started to decay.

Then, when there was no longer any discernable body left, the vapors of what was once Eden started swirling as if in a whirlpool, and it all drained into Kaejadra's hand.

The surroundings returned, and all was silent.

Kaejadra looked up to the ceiling, looking like he was basking in a new, powerful sensation. Squall dropped to one knee, looking suddenly bereft of his strength.

The Sorceress Andrea stepped away from the man, keeping a keen eye on her subordinate, an eye with the look of watching a predator. "What did you just do, Kaejadra?"

"Did you like it," The sorcerer answered, coming out of his trace, "_Mistress_?" He added, suddenly full of hatred and scorn.

Hideo reflexively turned his head away from the sight, unsure whether to wince or not. The tendrils of power that stemmed from the sorcerer, once barely noticeable over the sorceress, now became nearly blindingly bright.

The sorcerer started taking steps towards his mistress, and she stepped back even further. "What have you done? Answer me!" She ordered.

Without breaking stride, he examined his arm as if it were fascinating. "Just a little trick I discovered while dueling with a merc who had a GF. Unfortunately, he died before I could fully use it, but now I have assimilated a GF into my body. Just as I knew would happen if I dropped them in here." When before she had backed off, his glare now held her in her spot. "Before, _bitch_, I could never match your power. Now, you-are-**NOTHING!**" He shouted.

The sorceress brought her hands forward, and cast an _Ultima_ spell, one five times more powerful than even Squall could create at his peak. The massive ball of green energy lanced forward, the rapidly beating pulsation of the spell was felt like shockwaves, hitting Kaejadra's _Shell_, and there it fought against the barrier, sending off tendrils of green energy that broke up the icy floor. The battle lasted only a few seconds, and the sorceresses spell gave in, dissipating into oblivion.

The sorceress staggered from the excursion, and panic started to show in her face. "Kaejadra, I raised you, like…like,"

"Like a child?" Kaejadra suggested. "Or could you not come up with a fitting role? Why not just admit it now, like you have for the last decade? That I am a weapon, your slave, your creation, your obedient dog?" The mock left his voice. "Well, bitch, this dog's shackles are gone, and it's ready to bite back!" Kaejadra pulled his arm back, and threw it forward furiously, a blinding light flashed, and a deafening boom blasted the SeeDs away.

When the shock of the explosion wore off, Hideo and the others got off the ground only to gape at the sight. The ground where the sorceress had been standing on and the wall behind her were gone. No rubble, no scorch marks, no vapors or smoke, it was as if a large section of the room was scooped out and no longer existed, leaving perfectly smooth cut bedrock.

A tremor suddenly ran through Hideo. _No! Krakken, don't!_ The green aura surrounded him before he disappeared, revealing the water GF appearing all on it's own accord.

Kaejadra rolled his head, cracking his neck. "Protecting him, eh?" He smiled, and raised his hand, lightning running up and down his forearm and dancing between his fingers. Those lightning bolts, silver in color with space warped around them, lanced out and struck the GF, cutting into it's ethereal flesh like a storm of swords. Where chunks and pieces fell off, more bolts would lance out and smote them into oblivion, leaving nothing but memory. The process lasted nearly a minute, until the water GF was gone from existence.

Where one would normally return from the ether realm to the physical realm would be smooth after the GF returned to it's place in it's host, the SeeDs violently shifted back into this reality. Hideo instantly fell to the floor convulsing heavily as the part of his soul the GF merged with was violently stretched between the realms of the living and the dead. Shortly after, the physical reactions and pain subsided, replaced by a sense of disbelief. _Krakken…_

"Now for you." Kaejadra said. Though the others thought he referred to all of them, Hideo knew the comment was directed at him.

The Woman of Light's voice spoke in his head. _You have the means to escape within your grasp._ He was able to think about his options for half a second before fear overtook his reasoning. There was no way to escape, nothing could save them! He then felt the pulling of the GF, the instincts and drives and advice they present to their host. And this drive was to his spell stock. And there, Hideo realized, was his answer.

He reached out and grabbed Squall by the shoulder, pulling him into the small crowd of SeeD. When he was sure they were close enough together, he reached into his spell inventory, and cast the lone _Warp_ spell he had acquired not even an hour prior. He poured everything he was worth into the spell, stretching the distance as best he could.

A circle of silver light rose up around the SeeDs, looking like a warped glass bottle, and then it closed off above them. A brief flash of light occurred, and suddenly, they were back on jungle soil, the Ragnarok's port engine looming above their heads. Hideo didn't know what the others saw as he teleported them back, but he knew he saw a look of panic, of desperation on Kaejadra's face as he realized what was happening. Then the Bastard Shephard's voice echoed in his head, "_You will not escape from me!_"

After a second to understand what had just occurred, Squall started giving orders, "Everyone, back in the Ragnarok, immediately! I want it prepped for launch in three minutes, no more-I don't care if it's not properly warmed up!"

Hideo absently followed the orders, nearly all thoughts on his predicament eluded him. He was trapped, right when he had nearly obtained freedom he fell even deeper into this nightmare, and now that he was on a one way flight back to the Garden where he would likely be detained immediately, with a virtually omnipotent being now after him, he knew he no longer had any chance of escape.

He was trapped.

End of Chapter Eight

Author's Notes: I apologize for the unusually long chapter. The rest will be shorter, don't worry. Well, for those of you who are wondering, Kaejadra is pronounced Kay-ha-dra. The next chapter will be mostly story, but I'll be adding a few things that were requested when it was originally posted, so it'll probably take a few days longer than normal to post.


	10. The Last Choice

Disclaimer: I don't own…well, anything really. I don't own this computer, my car even though in the last year I've put more than it's market value worth of gas into it (11 freaking miles to the f'ing gallon!), my PS2…I guess all I own is my X-box…which doesn't have any games I'd make a fanfic about other than Morrowind, possibly Fable (not likely), and if I develop a sense of humor, Psychonauts. I don't own my bed, my TV, my hair (my Kung Fu teacher conned me into shaving it off a few times…long, very ugly story), and…okay, enough of my bitching, I own Hideo, Delta, most of Kaejadra (some aspects were inspired), the direct events in this story, and nothing else (literally).

**Chapter Nine: The Last Choice**

Darkness surrounded his body and mind. He could see nothing, hear nothing, smell nothing but his own dried sweat, and he preferred it that way. It didn't surprise him at all when two SeeDs cuffed him and dragged him to the disciplinary room, the closest thing the Garden had to a stockade, the moment he got off the Ragnarok.

Silence, save his slow breathing, encompassed him. Being void of thought was his only salvation, the only thing he could do to be free of madness. He had been viciously interrogated an hour earlier, and he barely answered the absolutely necessary questions. He didn't care if he was expelled. He didn't care if they locked him up in a government prison.

He let the darkness and the silence penetrate him, become him. He was tired; tired of worrying, tired of struggling, of caring, of being afraid, tired of running from everyone and everything, of being left with no option but to run, he wanted it all to end. He was just so tired.

At this point, he would rather despair than cling to hope only to bring about more struggle. That's what his problem had been his whole life: he never gave up. He always moved forward, clinging to whatever hope there was. He lifted his head up to the ceiling, seeing nothing but darkness. It was so dark, his eyes might as well have been closed. He had clung to hope, and look where he ended up: a prisoner, a wanted man on every side, no way to escape, and again, he gained more than he ever had only to watch powerlessly as it left him.

'Better to have loved and lost than to have never have loved at all', they said. _Bullshit,_ he said back. All those spoiled rotten brats ever 'lost' was their sense of reality. He wished so bad he had his GF back, both Ixion and Krakken. The thunder GF was taken from him, as well as the Black Behemoth suit, leaving him with only his silver dragon jumpsuit, while his blue matching coat was still in the Grandidi Forest. He wished he had every GF in the world overloading his mind right now, erasing his memory to the point where he didn't even remember how to take a piss. He was tired of his memories of Tetsuya, of the gangs and Esthar, of SeeD and the Garden. He would rather face his execution with a dead soul then the perpetually tormented one he now harbored. Why did all this have to happen to him? Why couldn't Delta have stayed the hell out of his life and left him a blank slate?

Half the time it seemed like the only purpose to his life was to be Hyne's little torture doll, and at other times, he was convinced that was the case.

His thoughts barely broke when the door to his room opened. He turned his head and squinted at the light that poured in. When he finally got a good look at the person standing there, he felt even worse. At this point, he would rather be locked in that room with Kaejadra than Delta.

"Are you okay?" She asked after a few seconds. He didn't move a muscle other than to take his gaze away from her. He heard the door close and found himself back in the darkness, though he knew he was not alone. "Talk to me, let me hear your voice." She pleaded.

He tried to stay silent, but making her wait became agonizing to him. "Nothing to talk about." He finally said.

"Hideo, what the hell's going on? They locked you up on sight, and they're refusing to tell anyone why! Do you know how hard it was to get them to let me in here?" With what they had been through in the last twelve hours, he couldn't blame her for being confused and worried.

"Why didn't you try and get the official report, then?" _Go away. Please…just go away._

He could feel her eyes on him, even in that darkness. He knew those eyes were full of hurt. "I want to know why, in your words. They won't tell me, so you will, and I'm not leaving you until you do!" So she thought she could be as hard as him, did she?

He shifted on his spot on the bed, huddled in the corner. "They probably think I'm a spy or something."

"Why would they think that?"

"I don't know, probably because I am." If she was not going to leave him, he was going to give her hell until she did.

She sighed in frustration. "Hideo, are you going to answer my question or not?"

"It's the truth, damn it!" He yelled. "Think about it! I'm a hacker, in a military academy, what the hell would I be doing **here**, huh? I screwed with the wrong people, and they told me they would let me off if I did a little hacking for them!" A silence followed after that. "Is that enough for you now, or do you want me to grab a top hat 'n cane and do a dance?"

He could hear her breathing now, broken and raspy. If only he could see her face now, a face full of hurt would drive the stake even deeper into his heart.

"You were sent here…" she said, "…by who?"

He scoffed. "So that's how they let you in here, eh? You agreed to get the answers out of me, didn't you?"

He didn't need sight to see it coming. The sounds of the quickly approaching footsteps were warning enough, yet he still did nothing to stop her fist from hitting his face. The punch was hard, and his head rebounding off the wall added to it. _No more than I deserve._

A pair of callused, strong, yet feminine hands grabbed his jumpsuit and pulled him out of his sitting position, and close enough to her face he could feel her warm breath. And he could smell her tears. "Answer me, you son of a bitch! I want the truth, for once! Don't I deserve that much?" She pushed him back against the wall. He heard her walk away slowly, then press her back against the wall and slide down it. "How much have you lied to me? I trusted you, with my back, with my life, with everything I had! Now…now I don't know who you are, if you're really the person I thought was my friend."

He sighed. She was right, she did deserve that much. "It wasn't the Black Behemoth that sent me, that much I can tell you." He strangely felt relieved when he told her that. "All I can say is these people are dangerous." Misleading, but it was true. "These people have no intention to harm or interfere with the Garden or SeeD," he then added towards the door, "or Manitech's deranged experiments!" He sighed, figuring he might as well continue. "Other than why I came to the Garden, everything I told you was true. I was raised on the streets, in gangs, I became a hacker, and now I'm here." He then added, with a chuckle, "I didn't even have a last name, so I used my alias."

"Why were you there in the Grandidi Forest?"

"I found out in the Headmaster's files where you were going, and I had a feeling they would find out about me soon, so I hitched a ride. With my two GFs, I was sure I could make it to Esthar on my own."

"Why did you follow us into the base?"

"Because of you." A hint of anger showed in his voice. "You don't become one of the biggest international crime syndicates ever known by being welcoming, and I had heard more than enough about what they had done in Esthar alone." He moaned. "Of course, you had to be on that mission, and screw up my plan."

He heard her get up and walk around the perimeter of the room until she found the door. "Hey," he called to her, "find out what you wanted to know?"

She stopped in the doorway. "I don't know." She said. "But in the last half hour, SeeD has gone into high alert. We've changed course to Balamb, and we're going faster than I've ever seen the Garden move. And no one is saying why."

He scoffed again. "I'll bet it's because of what we saw back there." He didn't need to explain what that was.

She still had her back to him. "Hideo, what was he?"

"He's a…a sorcerer, a male sorceress." He had to stop himself from saying 'Bastard Shepherd'. "They created him to control monsters for them." He sighed. "You should see the Headmaster, he probably knows more than me."

She was about to take a step, but stopped. "Good-bye, Hideo. It was nice knowing you, while I thought you were my friend." She then walked away, the doors shutting behind her, leaving him in his darkness once again. He had hoped to make her leave by hurting her, and she ended up hurting him more.

0000000000

Time, after that, passed by slowly. The harder he tried to not think about her, the harder it became to think about anything else. Try as he might, he couldn't find that void within his mind like before. Of course the one he had fallen for would be such a curse to him…or was love itself a curse.

From time to time, his train of thought would be interrupted by images of Kaejadra. A few times he could almost hear the sorcerer calling out to him. He thought he might be going crazy, or maybe the Bastard Shepherd really was trying to reach his mind.

Some time after he felt the Garden stop, the door to his room opened. "May I have a word with you?" A familiar voice said.

"Do I have a choice, Headmaster?" Hideo responded. "I thought I was a prisoner."

"I never liked the idea of detaining students in a military fashion." Cid answered. "May I turn the lights on?"

"Go ahead." Hideo winced a second later as the lights came on, revealing a small, plain white plaster room, with a desk on one end and his bed, barely more than a cot, on the other. The headmaster walked over to the desk, pulled out the chair and sat on it. Cid normally was cheerful, if a little tired, and sometimes stern, but this time worry plastered his face. "Sir, are you here to question me?"

The headmaster shook his head, resting his chin on his fists, elbows propped on his thighs. "No." He answered simply.

"You were trying to create sorcerers and sorceresses by fusing human and GF, weren't you?" Hideo asked.

"The Garden wasn't the first to employ the power of Guardian Forces." Cid slowly started explaining. "Most groups that used them were often feared and hunted, but in the last twenty years, as technology grew, and the need for military supremacy increased, ways of using GF as a weapon were inspected again. The problem was there aren't enough GF in this world to supply even a small army. The research for linking man with the Guardian Force matrix, with a GF as a medium, started nearly fifteen years ago. Around the time I started the Garden project, I found out how, with out significantly smaller military force, we could employ GF. As I studied GF, I found out about this research. The early days of the Garden were slow, and we barely turned a profit, so we volunteered to turn in the results of our GF usage to the researchers at Manitech for extra money. Eventually, as our profits grew beyond our expectations, we ended up providing funding for them."

"Because you wanted them to succeed?" Hideo inquired. "You wanted to turn students into your own super soldiers. Why? More power? Because you wanted the Garden to be unstoppable? What would you have done, then, with an invincible army?"

"Enough!" The Headmaster ordered. "That's not it at all." His next words were calm, solemn, even a little sad. "You have to understand: Balamb Garden's position is unique. The other Gardens became government funded, but we stayed neutral, relying on SeeD for the bulk of our financing. The more missions we did, the more we became a powerful force in this world, the more we realized how much we were needed. This world is a fragile one, with the superpowers ready to tear each other apart at a moment's notice. It needed an equalizing force, to keep each side from becoming too powerful, to keep them from starting a war that would reach every end of the known world. And we became that power."

The Headmaster hunched over more and rubbed his eyes. "But the price was high. We don't have a single SeeD who's survived more than six years. Financially and labor wise, we can keep this up, but my conscience can't. All students here are children. Many SeeDs aren't old enough to drink, and I'm constantly sending some kid or another to his or her death. On an old man like me, each death hits hard. I'm getting tired of sending them to their graves. Yet I can't simply end the SeeD program; this world still needs an independent equalizing force, besides simply eliminating dangerous sorceresses. If I can find a way to save the lives of these children, I'll do what I can."

"And somewhere along the way, you or Manitech found out the Black Behemoth was doing something similar?" Hideo asked.

"More like they found out about us. They stole the research files twelve years ago. We haven't heard anything on them since, until the attack on Deling. We had no idea they would make such progress, but we never suspected they had a sorceress. No doubt that helped them."

"So what now? What are you going to do with me?"

The aged leader sighed. "That's why I came down here."

"I suppose you were listening in on me and Delta's conversation."

Cid nodded. "Yes, and we have no further questions because of it." He straightened his back, sitting up. "To be honest, I'm not sure what to do with you, Hideo. I believed you when you said you have no intention of harming the Garden or SeeD, but considering your past connections and what you have done, I'm not sure we can take the risk."

"I'm not going to try and assure you that it's all in the past," Hideo replied, "I was planning on leaving. I have my reasons, and I'd rather not discuss them, but this is probably for the better." He hoped that would be enough.

The headmaster sighed. "Yes, it probably is." He seemed to roll over some thoughts in his head before continuing. "It seems you've done more during Operation: Grandaddy's Medicine than you intended." He pulled a few folded pictures from his pocket and handed them to Hideo. The Estharian unfolded them, finding satellite images of forested ocean coasts, and around two dozen boats leaving it. Looking at the scale, if he estimated this right, those boats were vary large. "Sir, what are these?"

"Shortly after I got the report from Squall, I contacted Esthar to let them know about the attack you discovered. It was my judgment that, since you knew about the plans, the Black Behemoth might execute them immediately before word would reach the Presidential Palace, so I told them as soon as I could. About three hours ago, I got this transmission from President Loire. It seems the Black Behemoth is on the move, but not for Esthar, as I had thought they would. They're heading straight for Balamb."

"What?" There was something not right with this. "Why would they be going for Balamb? Other than being the second largest port city on the four continents, what strategic value does it have?"

"I was stumped for a while as well, but I think they are trying to draw us into a confrontation with them."

Hideo brought his eyes from the images to the aged headmaster. If that was the case, they must have thought SeeD was the greatest threat to them. But if he had read the numbers right, there were hundreds of the most ferocious monsters locked up in that complex, and if those boats were transports…"Are we taking the bait?"

"We've already sent word ahead to Balamb, but it'll take far too long to evacuate the whole town. If we run, we'll be sacrificing the whole island."

"Sir, they have hundreds, maybe even thousands of monsters, all under their control. Even with Balamb's military backing us up, it'll be a slaughter!"

The headmaster sighed. "I already discussed this at length with Laguna. He can send a large shipment of soldiers over here, but to amass those troops and transports to take them so far away from the city would take at least twelve hours. The Black Behemoth is expected to arrive on our shores in just under six hours. Their long range missiles can't track those ships, so the only thing we can do to slow them down is to send our assault boats in Balamb after them, though with the numbers they'll be looking at, they'll only be able to slow them down." Cid looked Hideo in the eyes. "All we can do is slow them down while reinforcements arrive, and to draw the fight away from Balamb."

"So we're all going into battle." Hideo said. "Have you told the rest of the Garden?"

"No, I will make the announcement after we're done talking. What I wanted to clear up was that even with your word that you have no allegiance to the Black Behemoth, we can't afford that kind of trust, not in this situation. So I'm going to ask you to leave the island. I've talked to the Mayor of Balamb, and you'll have a reserved seat on a train before the first wave gets here."

Hideo nodded. "So I guess this is goodbye."

"It is. Whatever your intentions were, you still served SeeD, however short it was, so I'll arrange for you to get your GF back and your payment up until now before you leave."

0000000000

Kaejadra opened the hatch above him, and emerged into thick fog. He stood on the bridge deck of the transport. In front of him, over the railing and out of sight, were the monsters. One Hoard per ship. He never bothered to try and understand the basics of what made a Hoard, he just knew it was a calculation of culminated combat ability. This one, he knew through his connections with the monsters, comprised of three behemoths, two elnoyles, and five grendels.

He knew what the radar said about their position, and he didn't trust it. He never trusted technology over his own senses. He didn't trust technology at all. He was created by it, a nano-assembler void tube was his womb, the lab his bedroom, and an examination table his cradle. The monster arena was his only playground as he grew. Technology never helped him there, and it never will help him. No missiles or rockets were brought along, no antimatter cannons or plasma emitters, not even guns were allowed to be brought. Only himself, the monsters, the transport boats, and the bare minimum crew required to accomplish this.

He never trusted anything that didn't help him, and technology was one of many things that never helped him, only hurt and oppressed him. Technology didn't create the moon or it's creatures. Technology may have given him life, but his life never meant much to him. This power, his connection with the universal nexus of the GF Matrix, his connection with the monsters was his only relief. It was the only thing he ever had, the only thing that showed something other than malevolence to him, and he would embrace nothing else. Except now, it all changed. He was not alone.

He pulled on a gaze visor, the standard operations helmet of the Behemoth Syndicate and the Esthar military, and switched it to telescope view and infrared. The image he got was distorted, so reaching into his endless reservoir of power, his control magnified many times now that Eden was a part of him, he thinned out the fog, the fog that he summoned, for miles ahead of him. The visor's image clarified, and he was able to make out a beach, probably ten miles away. He estimated three hundred and fifty people stood close to the banks. Most were Balamb military, and this was probably the entire army there. Balamb was, after all, a small nation. The rest, he knew, were of the Garden. He knew there was just under fifty SeeDs currently, so there must have been several regular students who volunteered. They all amassed there, spread across a mile or so, waiting for them. Waiting for him.

He smiled as he took off the helmet. _I'm sorry to disappoint,_ he silently mused, _but I'm here for someone else._

0000000000

_This is bad._ Squall thought as he looked at the ocean. He could see nothing past fifty yards out, as a massive wall of fog covered it, approaching the island. It was as flat as a cliff side, half a kilometer high and miles wide. He didn't expect this. They wouldn't know where the boats would land, he couldn't coordinate different groups, and no one would know where they were on the battlefield if that fog was as thick as it looked.

He looked back to his camp. SeeD was ordered to participate in the battle, but the students were given a choice. Too many had backed down.

He had given the order that all Magic First Class users were to spread across the different groups. When they encounter the monsters, the melee fighters would surround the magic users, who would provide offense at long range and support at short range.

He had taken Rinoa to his camp. He didn't trust anyone but himself and his friends from their unforgettable adventure together to protect her, and he could easily see one of the common soldiers in their camp getting the wrong idea seeing a sorceress on the battlefield. All camps were to stick together as units, and he was not going to leave her side. She wasn't a student or a SeeD, and he didn't want her in this battle. But she had refused to leave, and he knew just how much of a help she would be.

He turned back to the ocean, to the rapidly approaching wall of fog. Off in the distance, he heard a behemoth roar.

0000000000

The first rows of ships hit the beach as the fog engulfed the inland military units. Several roars reverberated across the beach, and Squall cursed inwardly as he saw a few Balamb soldiers take steps backward. _Stay focused._ He told himself.

Through the thickening fog, they could hear heavy trampling approaching. "Rinoa, Irvine, and any long range weapon users," he called out behind him, "focus on larger monsters first!" After he said that, a huge shadow grew in the fog ahead of Squall. Readying his weapon, he prepared himself.

Suddenly, a huge jaw became visible. Reacting on instinct and GF intuition, Squall's left hand grabbed a tooth, while his gunblade wielding right reached between two razor-like teeth, straining every GF enforced muscle fiber in his being to keep the T-Rexuar's mouth from clamping down on him. Suddenly, the giant monster's head whipped up, throwing Squall into the air. The elite SeeD quickly got control of his flight, and landed on the monster's head, driving his gunblade through it's skull.

_One down._ He thought. If every monster was A-rank and above, they were in serious trouble. He suddenly heard a strangely familiar shriek in the foggy air, and soon, something blasted through the fog, and dragged him with it. Regaining his disciplined senses quickly, Squall found himself being dragged along by an elnoyle, with his stomach on the crooked abdominal section between the upper body and tail.

The gloomy SeeD hastily pushed off it's abdomen, planted his feet on the large stinger, and quickly made two deep slashes to the monster's midsection, severing it entirely. Through the fog, he could see the outline of a granaldo, and placing his feet on the upper body of the elnoyle, now starting to descend through the fog, he jumped off toward the new monster.

As he got near, he soon saw another elnoyle nearby. Landing on the shoulders of the barely larger monster, Squall quickly severed the granaldo's head, then looked to the elnoyle before they could both fall back to the ground. He instantly recognized the familiar gesture as the monster sucked in a deep breath, preparing to spew it out devastating magical energies.

He was about to use a bullet from his gunblade, but instantly disregarded the thought. He would use them only to protect Rinoa, no other reason. He reached back, and threw his gunblade like a boomerang. Before he and the granaldo he was 'riding' fell far enough away to where he couldn't see the monster, he saw his gunblade embed itself in the elnoyle's skull.

The seasoned mercenary jumped off the grandaldo, and cast float on himself, landing on the ground lightly. There, he saw a scene from hell. Half a dozen soldiers laying dead, one with nearly his entire body crushed and split open like a sack of flesh, and one still barely alive, his waist and everything below simply gone, as he struggled to hold on and live as he futilely dragged his near dead body with his arms across the blood covered ground.

And he saw there were still monsters that Rinoa and the rest of the camp were fighting. This was far from over. Running over to the dead elnoyle to retrieve his gunblade, he could only hope that his father would be able to gather his forces soon enough.

0000000000

Hideo turned his head to the east, looking at the entrance of Balamb as the first explosions of battle were heard. Shortly after, he heard the familiar whistle of an _ultima_ spell, followed by another explosion. He told himself he didn't care, that he was leaving on the next transport. He had told himself that each time as he watched a train or a transport ship leave without him.

He continued down the street to where the road slanted down and started spiraling around the Balamb Hotel. There, he could see the docks, with hundreds of citizens pleading with the soldiers to let them onboard, or their wives or children. The train station was twice as packed. He could have left already, he could have sealed it all and been away from the battle with only a few words and some proof of identification. Yet he held back.

At long last, he was a blank slate. He had no gangs to run from, no government warrants to haunt him, no vendettas or phantoms, just death on one side and freedom on the other. There couldn't have been a clearer choice, yet he held back. For once in his life, fear no longer kept him moving: it kept him still. He feared Kaejadra, the Black Behemoth and their legion of monsters, but he also feared…he wasn't sure what it was. All his life he had been driven from one home after another, but for once, he had the choice to leave, and it was this choice, this small amount of freedom he rarely saw, that he was afraid of.

What happened to him? Had he become so accustomed to this never ending cycle that he actually believed his own hopes of something better merely to be a fantasy beyond possibility? Had this despair become so deeply rooted within him that he feared this possibility becoming reality? If it was not circumstances that brought such conflict to him, then he brought it upon himself. He truly had become hopelessly attached to pain.

"Hideo!" He was glad for the distraction, until he saw who the voice belonged to. _No, not again!_

Delta ran up to him, stopping several feet away from him, far enough to show she still didn't trust him. There, she just looked at him. She looked at him as if she didn't know if he were an enemy or ally, and he returned the look. For a long time, they just stared at each other, in a silent struggle as the sounds of battle echoed in the distance.

Finally, she broke the silence. "What are you doing? Don't you know what's going on?"

"Yes, and I have every reason in the world to run!" He almost yelled. This was the last thing he needed.

"And when did a few monsters scare you?"

He scoffed. "Delta, these aren't red bats or bite bugs! These aren't even grand mantises, we're looking at behemoths, elnoyles, T-Rexaurs, even red dragons! Talk all you want, you've never fought **anything** like that before!" The memories of Lunatic Pandora's pass over Esthar, of the hordes of monsters tearing through squadrons of soldiers at a time, was still fresh in his mind after nearly a year and a half. "We're junior SeeDs, we're nothing compared to the seniors! We'd only slow them down. What makes this so damn important to you?"

She huffed. "When Galbadia attacked Dollet, we ran, giving away our soldiers and our country. Well, this time I'm not abandoning my home!"

"Your home?" Hideo scoffed. "Delta, your home and your family are in Dollet! Are you going to throw all that away for this suicide cause?"

"Suicide cause?" She repeated, softly, as if she wasn't sure she heard that right. "Hideo, the Garden is our home! I'm not sure I ever really knew you, but I know this was your home as well! You can deny it all you want, but I know it meant something to you!"

He almost did deny it, but he knew he couldn't fool her. Or himself.

"Do you even know why you're leaving?" She asked.

"Do you even know why you're staying?" He asked, deciding to voice his thoughts. "You say you don't want to 'abandon your home'? Bullshit! You want to die out there, whether you realize it or not. You feel guilty for what your uncle did back during the siege on Dollet!" He broke the distance between them, and got his face to within inches of hers. He was short, only a couple inches taller than her, but he nevertheless looked down on her. "You talk about how you want to serve your people, about how you love your country. Well, this is not Dollet. If you die here, you wouldn't have served your people or your country! 'Abandon your home'? You just want to repent for those soldiers your uncle sacrificed! Now tell me, Delta, who's not being honest here?"

She returned his stare with a cold look. He had hit home. He could practically see her thoughts zipping around in her head. Soon, her cold stare changed. Her eyes started filling with hurt, her brows unfurled, and her lower lip started trembling.

He softened his gaze as well, and he put his hands on her shoulders. After a few seconds, he pulled her in and wrapped his arms around her. "Come with me, Delta, at least to the western continent."

She lifted her arms up, wrapping them over his shoulders. "Hideo, this place still means so much to me."

_It does for me too._ His mind wandered back to when he last saw Tetsuya. _"Hideo, it was our home! Even if it's rat infested, it's still your home. That's something no one has any right to take away from you!"_ He closed his eyes tightly. _"There are some things in this world that are worth risking your life for, even dying for."_

"Delta," He pulled away from her enough to look her in the eye. He lifted his hand to brush her face, and he pressed his lips to hers. She didn't seem to notice as the aura of a cast spell radiated from him, and she fell asleep in his arms.

He took the payment chip he got from the Garden, nine thousand gil from a rank eleven SeeD, due to a three point promotion from his performance from the Deep Sea Research Center, and put it in her pocket. He picked her up in his arms and made his way to the outskirts of the crowd outside the train station. There, he found a guard.

"Hey, you!" He went over to the guard, and without warning, he put the unconscious girl in his arms. "Put her on the train, compliments of the Mayor." He pulled his Garden and SeeD ID from his wallet and put it in the man's hand. "Show this to the authorities, tell them to put her in my stead."

As the guard began to contemplate what the SeeD instructed, Hideo put his hand on Delta's cheek, caressing it. _"If you live long enough, you'll understand that someday."_

_I understand now, Tetsuya. Thank you, bro._

0000000000

"Just die!" Hideo screamed as he barely dodged another slash from grendel number three. These small, agile dragons were so much easier when he had three GFs, including Bahamut, and other SeeDs helping him. Even with _Shadow Run_ in almost constant use, he was having trouble with three on one.

He sidestepped as one leapt at him. Using the stepping, he spun around in hopes of at least cutting the beast, anywhere at all, but his translucent blue sword, Lunar Edge, was stopped by the grendel's bone-blade tail.

The GF intuition flared up, and he slipped his legs from under him as grendel number one leapt _on_ him. His sword was too far away at that moment, so he kicked the monster away before it's claws could reach him. On his back, he wasn't quick enough to stop grendel two from leaping on him immediately after.

Hideo was able to grab a hold of one of the monster's front claws, while he barely managed to push away the other claw with his sword-baring hand. At this range, in this position, he wouldn't be able to swing hard enough to do more than barely cut the skin.

Hoisting with all his strength, he and the grendel rolled over, with the human on top. Enough was enough. He brought his feet together, his knees to his chest, and he kicked off the monster to take flight. In the air, he used the last of his few _ultima_ spells to detonate the monstrous trio.

He landed well, but barely managed to stay standing. The four Balamb military personnel he hooked up with didn't last long, and in this fog, if you wandered twenty feet away, you were invisible.

That's why he didn't see the hand before it grabbed his leg.

"What the?" He recoiled, and saw on the ground a SeeD, caked blood on his mouth, his stomach cut open with intestines hanging out, and his legs were messy, bloody stumps just below the knees. His eyes were glazed, face as white as a sheet of paper, and he was soaked with sweat. His outstretched arm and head were shaking. His eyes didn't seem like they were able to stay on him for long.

"Please…please, help me find my legs!" He croaked. "Please…I need 'em…I promised…I'd dance with her…at the Garden Fest-" A huge red claw formed out of the fog, crushing the man's body with a sickening crunch. The huge black horns and small head of a ruby dragon followed.

Hideo recoiled, his breath quickening and sweat building. That was far from the first soul he saw taken, begging to live, here on these plains.

The dragon walked towards the Estharian slowly. Hideo's body trembled with fear and rage. That rage built within him, and he focused it into his magic, pushing the limits of what his body could handle, and channeled it through his outstretched hand into a _blizzaga_ spell. The large blue comet-like crystal shot out, striking the monster's flank, instantly freezing the grass and soil, and turning the dragon's skin a crusted black. It roared in pain, and convulsed a couple of times.

Hideo gripped his sword and charged. His rage had abated enough for him to see the dragon rearing it's head back, ready to use it's fiery breath attack, and he activated his _Shadow Run_, jumping to the dragon's side, then onto it's back. He reversed his grip on the Lunar Edge, and with both hands, stabbed it into the dragon's back. He had tried to sever the spinal cord, but the vertebrae were too thick, too tough, and the blade was pushed to the side, into muscle and maybe an organ or two.

_Shadow Run_ still in effect, he didn't hesitate at all by pulling out his twin pistols and firing at the monster's head. Each bullet ricocheted off it's thick skull. He had just used his last few shots for nothing!

Then, over the constant explosions, screams and roars of the battle around him, close and far off, all beyond sight in the white and gray fog, he heard another sound: machinery, and it was getting louder.

He grabbed his sword and jumped from the beast's backside just before a tank appeared from the fog. It ran into the ruby dragon, pushing it onto it's side, and then climbed on top of it, crushing what life was left in it.

When the stub-cannoned tank got off the monster, it's top hatch opened and a Balamb military officer appeared, holding a huge, double barreled assault rifle. One barrel was meant for rapid fire bullets, while the other was meant for anti-tank rounds. "I'm sorry, was he yours?" The man asked.

Hideo was too tired to even laugh at the joke. At this point, he was running purely on adrenaline. _Where did this tank come from? Balamb doesn't have ground infantry vehicles._ Being a small island, the country's military was comprised almost entirely of navel vessels and personnel. Then he saw the Dollet national symbol on the side. _I guess those evacuation transports brought back more than empty boats._

Then, the sixth sense granted by the GF went crazy. Firing off the _Shadow Run_, Hideo managed to get ten feet away from the tank as an incredibly powerful _thundaga_ spell hit it. A massive explosion of flares shot out, the tank catapulted twenty feet into the air to disappear into the fog, and the ground that was underneath it exploded in a shower of soil and grass. The shockwave from the spell knocked Hideo clean off his feet, and yet he was still distantly aware of the concussion from the tank hitting the ground again.

Several seconds passed before the world stopped spinning, and he managed to get back on his feet. _What the hell was that? What could cast a spell so-_ He got his answer as a behemoth came into sight from the veils of wispy fog, walking straight at him.

_Oh shit._

The behemoth scrunched up, and with the strange magical-field sight he gained from fighting Andrea and Kaejadra, he saw the beast preparing a spell. A black sphere appeared over it's head, barely visible at this distance.

He tried his best to recall what spell this was as fast as he could. He nearly panicked when he realized what it was. _Meteor!_

A huge, ten-foot-wide lump of rock fired out, and Hideo barely managed to jump out of it's trajectory as it hit the earth, tearing through the ground as if it were loose sand. He activated the _Shadow Run_ for the hundredth time since he got on the Alcauld Plains, and managed to maneuver around the gigantic asteroids as they plowed through the ground, covering a large area.

As he avoided one, he found himself staring right at one too close for him to run to the sides. There was only one way to go: up. Firing off his legs for everything they were worth, he barely cleared the meteor with his legs still attached.

Then he saw his mistake as one flew directly at him. In the air, he had surrendered all control to gravity, and he had no way of avoiding it. As desperation gripped him, instinct took over, and he fired off a telekinetic burst, shattering the rock. The left over pieces still pummeled him. One piece the size of a basketball hit him clean on the head, knocking sense and orientation out of him as gravity continued it's work, making him crash to the ground.

He laid there, fighting to stay conscious. His head throbbed like a drum the size of the Garden. His vision was fogged, and sight became tinted red. Through his confusion, he managed to react on a single instinct, a thing he relied on far too much out here. "_Curaga_." The blue energies of his last curative spell swirled over his body and penetrated into him. Quickly his mind became clearer, and he saw the tint in his sight was from one eye having blood from the meteor hit seeping into it.

He got onto his hands and knees, breathing heavily, exhaustion starting to overpower the adrenaline. He heard the grunting of the behemoth coming closer. He looked up and saw it's purple form approaching through the fog. _Damn you!_

He reached into his stock, and used the last _blind_ spell he had left. He used the rest helping a few others fight a pair of Iron Giants.

Thick, black smoke formed around the behemoth's head. It's first reaction was to paw it's head to remove whatever was obstructing it's vision. But the smoke persisted, fuming from nothing but the ether. Then the huge monster jumped up and started bouncing around, bucking like a bronco, whipping around it's eel-like tail and huge black horns.

Hideo groaned. Now he wasn't going to be able to use melee attacks on it without being pulled under and trampled. _Kaejadra knows how to train his monsters._

Gritting his teeth, he used a _firaga_ spell, hitting the monsters hard, yet barely burning through it's short, coarse fur. Hideo growled and used another one, then another, then his last one. He then resorted to Ice elemental attacks, then lightning, then used his second level magic, then his first. He then used his last _thunder_ spell, the merely one-thousand volts hitting the beast, and it still continued.

_Goddamn it, no wonder these things are feared so damn much!_ He ran a long circle around the still bucking monster. Then he saw the wreckage of the tank, and the huge assault rifle. Putting his sword back in it's sheath and firing off the _Shadow Run_, he blazed across the field and grabbed it. He took a second to look it over, and switched it to auto-fire. Setting the butt against his shoulder, he pulled back the trigger, making it spit fire at the monster. The bullets were lodging themselves in the beast's muscles, but no further. _Hyne, why do they have to be so damn muscular!_

Then it stopped bucking, and it looked at Hideo through black eyes. The _blind_ spell had worn off.

Hideo looked over the rifle, and found the switch for the anti-tank rounds. He flipped the heavy switch, aimed, and fired. The recoil nearly knocked him over, but he was rewarded as a huge chunk of meat blasted off the behemoth. Finally, something that hurt this bastard! He fired again, and again, and again, blowing up huge chunks of flesh, sending blood all over. Finally, the ten round clip was exhausted, and the behemoth dropped dead.

Hideo dropped the gun, and fell to his knees. His vision was getting blurry, the constant deafening racket of monsters roaring, spells firing, and people screaming, all out of sight, was starting to sound like music, bidding him to succumb to his exhaustion.

Then he felt it. Beyond his five senses, beyond the GF, he felt him. All other sound softened into silence, and he heard clapping. He lifted his head and saw a silhouette in the fog approaching. Then, Kaejadra became fully visible.

Formerly clothed in a black hakama and haori, he now wore baggy white pants and a blue vest with heavy golden embroidery, zipped up in front.

"So here you are." He cooed. "And I was starting to think you had run like you did before."

_Ixion, if ever I needed your help, it's now!_ He activated the _Shadow Run_, leaping up, pulling his sword from it's sheath and attacking all in the blink of an eye. Even faster than his attack, Kaejadra lifted his hand to meet the Lunar Edge. A force blasted from the sorcerer's hand, and the blade shattered.

Hideo fell to his knees, shock overriding his senses. He put his hand to his chest, and saw blood oozing through his fingers. _This isn't happening._ He prayed.

The sorcerer stood before him, laughing, mocking his weakness. He truly was weak, and only now, as his lifeblood left him, did he understand it.

Off in the distance, he heard screams, cries for help, cries of pain, cries of desperation. Cries that he could not make, now, with a shard embedded in his lung.

His head sagged, his body convulsed, and blinding pain shot through him as he coughed up blood to mix with the crimson of the hundreds of humans and monsters that covered the fields. All around him, the bodies of SeeDs, soldiers, and monsters lay lifeless, mutilated, their faces carved with submission to hopelessness.

It truly was hopeless, only a fool would dare hope, and he had been such a fool. Here, on this field, he was going to die. How could he have thought he had a chance against one powerful enough to destroy a GF? Now, he had nothing. His guns were empty, he had exhausted his magic stock, and now, his sword was shattered. How fitting that his first weapon for taking life would now claim his own.

"Hmm." The sorcerer mused. There was a shallow cut on his cheek from when he shattered the other's sword. "That was careless of me."

_I'm going to die._ He realized. Suddenly, all his fears ended. All the pain he bore since his birth, all the hatred and suffering he endured throughout his life no longer existed. He never knew, until now, just how afraid he always was. For the first time in his life, he was content to be where he was, dying here on this battlefield, all fear gone.

He sensed the man charging his power to deliver one last blow, one that, he knew, would incinerate his body. _Fine by me._

As the last few seconds of his life, each feeling like hours, ticked away, Hideo wondered how everything lead up to this point. His life flashed before his eyes. Tetsuya's sacrifice, Liam's lessons, the hackings in Esthar, President Loire's ultimatum, his first sight of the Garden, adjusting to the technology, the SeeD tests, it all flashed through his mind.

Yet one thing eclipsed all others, one feeling that made everything else miniscule: Delta. He knew exactly how she would feel when she found out he was dead, just like when Tetsuya died.

No! He wasn't going to put her through that! He was going to see her again, even if he was going to get a beating for putting her on that train, he was going to see her again!

He lifted his head to look Kaejadra in the eyes. _Sorry, asshole, but I think I'll cling to hope and suffering just a little longer!_ He knew what the only possibility was. His fear of dying overrode his fear of that power, and he dove back there, into that infinite tunnel. Instead of driving away from it, he flew towards the light. _If this does cause a ethereal-physical reaction, or a fluctuation in magical properties, at least I'll take you out!_

Then he hit it. He found his soul surrounded in light, and magical power beyond his wildest imaginations. It was as if he were teleported to the bottom of an abyss, and breathed in a lungful of water. He felt both his body and soul change, shifting across this new power. He had no control over it, he had no need to. The power flowed freely through him, he did not contain any of it.

He was lifted from the ground, light pulsing rapidly from his body. The blue crystal shard shot from his chest, nearly cutting Kaejadra in the process. Hideo's head and arms were pulled back, as if he were being lifted by the chest. Webbed waves of milky light exploded out, each firing off as rapidly as the pulses of light.

Suddenly, all the expended light retracted and flashed back into the Estharian's body. Hideo fell lightly to the ground, kneeling, face towards the ground. Streaks of snowy white flashed through his hair until that was it's full color. He rose to his feet, and looked the sorcerer in the eyes. Eyes that were once green now were black abysses, save the blue pupil in the center.

The Bastard Shepherd smiled. "I've been waiting for this!"

End of Chapter Nine.

Author's Note: Well, there you have it. The conclusion to the cliffhanger I left in the prologue. Or would it be proepilogue? Since my word check is marking it, I'm guessing that's not a word. Anyways, I'll probably post the final chapter in a few days. As you can expect, it'll involve a big-ass fight sequence. Hope you enjoy.


	11. Duel of Fates

Disclaimer: Hmm…witty disclaimer…screw it, I own ALL of FFVIII! HAHAHAHAHA! (gets clubbed unconscious) Hi, I'm Omega Gilgamesh's lawyer, and he claims ownership of nothing contained within this article of virtual literature, except the direct events and the two characters it focuses mostly on.

**Chapter Ten: Duel of Fates**

Hideo fired off _Shadow Run_ and lunged forward, delivering a left hook to Kaejadra's face, then a right punch into the sorcerer's gut. He pulled back his fist, only to pull it to his shoulder, and raised his elbow to Kaejadra's chin, making him lean back. With his raised arm, Hideo made a small step in closer to bring his elbow onto the sorcerer's sternum, forcing him off balance and onto the ground.

With _Shadow Run_ still in use, he jumped into the air. There, he accessed his newfound powers, and shot off three _Fira_ spells. He expected Kaejadra to use _shell_ or some other spell, but instead the sorcerer's body seemed to dissolve and absorb into the dirt below him, and the fiery spells detonated dirt alone.

Hideo touched ground again, keeping his senses sharp, blue pupil eyes scanning the area. Before he saw anything, he heard dirt and soil breaking and being shuffled. Three mounds around him suddenly spurt up, and they moved as if something traveled under the surface.

The three subterranean creatures circled him, and Hideo just stood there, waiting for their move. _Did Kaejadra bring some fastitocalons out here?_ The three mounds stopped moving for a second, then suddenly shot towards him five times faster than they moved before.

_Shadow Run_ fired off and he jumped in the air immediately, and as the three mounds connected, dirt blasted out as a stream of fire shot straight up into the sky.

Distracted by the sight, he didn't notice the sorcerer behind him until a telekinetic blast knocked him to the ground. Hideo rolled onto his back, but before he could get up, the soils around him burst as six tentacles of dirt lanced up, then coil around him, pinning him to the ground. The ground he lay on broke away from the rest of the plains, lifting him up and forward so he was once again upright, as if he were on an examination table

The albino form of Kaejadra appeared from the fog. "You disappoint me. Why use a knife when you have missiles at your disposal?"

Hideo squirmed in his bindings, and finally found some slack. Using it for wind up, he pushed his shoulder out as hard as he could, and the tentacles broke.

Acting immediately, he cast a _Quake_ spell, and upheavals of earth under the sorcerer threw the sorcerer's attention off for the split second Hideo needed. He fired off a telekinetic blast, knocking Kaejadra into the air, and followed up with an _Ultima_ spell. But before the blast of green energy could reach the sorcerer, his body suddenly jolted to the side, avoiding the spell entirely. He then returned his gaze to Hideo. "Enough with the parlor tricks! You can now do everything I can do, so stop holding back!" He pulled his hand back, then threw an _Ultima_ spell at his opponent.

Hideo jumped into the air, easily avoiding the slow moving spell. There, he instinctively found the power within himself to fly. _So, I have the same power as you do, eh?_ His brow furled. _But you're still stronger than me, because of Eden. Yet I still have the _Shadow Run_ on my side, and speed is my ally._

He felt his newfound power, feeling it's intricacies and properties. He saw how he could manipulate the elements around him; earth, heat, gravity. He felt the coding and weavings of what both Kaejadra and himself were doing right then. The power of the sorcerer barely touched conventional spells, it's true power lay in manipulation. As he explored this power, he found it's incredible similarity to hacking. This was his turf, now! _My speed and brains versus your power. This ought to be interesting._

Hideo started moving to the left, circling his opponent. Then he activated _Shadow Run_, and much to his delight, it affected his flying as well. He pulled back into the fog, away from Kaejadra's sight. There, he gathered the moisture in the fog to create ice darts. Unlike Ice elemental magic, these weren't concentrations of freezing energies that exploded and spread on impact, but were simply dozens of shards of ice, as long as a fist and sharp as a sword.

A rift in the fog appeared and widened, opening a path between Kaejadra and Hideo. Immediately, the ice shards shot forward as fast as bullets. The Bastard Shepherd managed to blast out a gigantic stream of flames from his hand, burning the shards before they reached him, but was caught unaware as a huge mound of earth, looking as if it were scooped from the ground like ice cream, shot up and collided with him, lifting him skyward.

A second later, the mound exploded, leaving Kaejadra floating as large chunks of soil and clay fell to the ground. "Now you're starting to learn." He said. Then he accessed his control over the fog, and closed the rift, the walls of fog smashing together quickly. He immediately made the fog where Hideo stood denser, until he was floating in a blob of water. The Bastard Shepherd then froze the moisture he had gathered.

Kaejadra smiled. He couldn't have gotten away quick enough to escape the giant chunk of ice that now hovered where Hideo was flying. The sorcerer cleared the fog around him to inspect his catch, only to find the icy prison had nothing in it.

Suddenly his body became incased in an invisible grip, and was violently slammed into the smooth chunk of ice. Immediately following, three black sphere-like portals formed around the sorcerer, each ten yards away. Kaejadra recognized them as _Meteor_ spells. He jumped off the chunk of floating ice as the first asteroid crashed into it, but found a dozen more coming straight at him.

He started firing off bursts of light, lesser versions of what he used to kill Andrea, vaporizing the huge crater covered rocks as fast as he could.

A swirl of mist coalesced into Hideo, a trick similar to what Kaejadra did earlier when he dissolved his body. As soon as his body was fully reformed, he cast _Thundaga_ on the sorcerer. The lightning stunned him, holding him there until one of the asteroids collided with him, and crashed to the ground with the sorcerer under it.

A second later, a massive _shell_ formed from the crater, throwing the huge rock off. The asteroids after that crashed into the barrier, each nearly collapsing it.

The three spells were nearly finished. Hideo reached out with his power and touched the _shell_ spell. As soon as he felt it, he altered it so it's own properties decayed themselves, making it dissolve almost instantly. The next asteroid crashed into the crater, pushing up even more dirt. The two remaining ether-based rocks crashed into that asteroid, pushing it deeper in, shattering on impact.

Hideo doubted that killed him, not with Eden's power. The asteroid exploded, sending out a shockwave that knocked the Estharian sorcerer over. Kaejadra lumbered out of the crater, black, bruised, and bleeding from several gashes littered across his arms and torso. There was no malice in his face, only a cold excitement.

His eyes seemed to penetrate into Hideo's soul, and the Estharian found himself somewhere else, watching a scene unfold in front of him. A child, who couldn't have been older than seven, sat on the ground. He had a black eye in sharp contrast to his albino skin and white hair, with red and blue veins barely visible under the skin. He was sitting cross legged on the thin, hard packed soil, surrounded by the familiar trees and vines of the Grandidi Forest. He was sobbing.

"I want you to make that cockatrice kill that funguar." An female voice demanded. The two monsters were nearby, surrounded by an electro-field cage.

The young Kaejadra looked up to Andrea, his eyes looking far too much like a battered puppy's. "Please, don't make me do it. They're my friends, they did nothing to you!" Instantly, a low grade _thunder_ spell ripped through his frail body, making him fall back and weep quietly in pain.

"Do it!" Her voice was quiet, but her tone was colder than ice.

Little Kaejadra looked at the two monsters with tear filled eyes. "I can't!"

"Can't, or won't?" Kaejadra closed his eyes tightly and scrunched into a ball right before Andrea hit him with a _thunder_ spell twice as powerful as before.

The connection broke, and the Bastard Shepherd charged. The first punch to the head blurred his vision, the second made his world spin. The next punch went to his stomach, making Hideo double over onto his knees. If Kaejadra's recollection wasn't still playing over and over in his mind he would've easily dodged those strikes.

The Bastard Shepherd reached down and lifted Hideo by the neck. He then threw the Estharian into the air, and spun around to kick him. Hideo barely managed to form a _protect_ spell in time, yet the force of the kick sent him flying back, skidding across the ground. He came to a stop a hundred feet away from the sorcerer, now hidden by the fog. _Damn it! Eden's enhanced his strength as much as his magic!_

He managed to get to his feet, as well as drive the memories out of his head. In the fog, he saw a reddish-orange glow approaching. Out came Kaejadra, holding a long, heavy scimitar of flames in his hands.

Hideo formed a similar sword of fire magic in his hands, shaped like the Lunar Edge. _Kaejadra is much stronger than me, and if I made a sword of ice elemental, the stronger magical properties of his sword would go through mine like butter. Malak, I hope your lessons pay off._

Grabbing the hilt with both hands, Kaejadra made the first move. Hideo deflected and redirected the attacks, but never dared to directly block a move, and as such, he was pushed back. Soon, he started using sidesteps and lateral movements to throw off the sorcerer's directly lined attacks.

In mid-swing, Kaejadra's fiery blade faded into wisps, and was replaced by a blade of blue ice. When the icy blade met Hideo's red fire, light flashed, followed by the Estharian's blade dissolving. The young SeeD managed to grasp _Shadow Run_ in time to dodge the next few attacks before creating his own blade of ice. The next strike was from a blade of fire, which overpowered the opposing elemental energy of Hideo's, and cut his arm in the process. With _Shadow Run_, Hideo flipped over Kaejadra, spun in mid-air and kicked the sorcerer in the side of the head.

The attack forced some distance between them, but didn't stun the sorcerer at all. Yet it granted Hideo the valuable time he needed to come up with a strategy. Forming a fire based sword in one hand and an ice based one in the other, Hideo was prepared for whichever the sorcerer attacked with.

Kaejadra smirked, and dashed forward with his fiery blade. As Hideo expected, the fire turned to ice at the last second, and he let go of the fire version of his sword, letting it drop to the ground. After a few swings, Kaejadra switched to an fire blade, and instead of letting the former sword dissipate, Hideo just let his sword fall to the ground as a new one formed in his hands.

Kaejadra lunged forward for a stab, his scimitar changing back to ice. Hideo let go of his sword, immediately forming a new one to push the blade to the side, his sword tip facing down. The Estharian quickly stepped in and did a knife-hand chop to Kaejadra's throat, forcing a gag out of him. With the distraction, he swung the sorcerer's magical blade away as hard as he could, throwing his opponent slightly off balance before kicking him in the face hard.

Kaejadra recovered quickly, and went in for a downward attack. Hideo lifted his blade up and did a similar sword swing, only his sword coming at an angle on top of Kaejadra's in order to push it to the side. With the movement, Hideo would end up shoulder-to-shoulder with Kaejadra, but instead of stopping, he rammed into him, knocking him over.

Almost instantly, Kaejadra lifted off the ground into flight, but just as quickly, Hideo caught him in a telekinetic grip and slammed him back onto the ground with enough force to cause a minor tremor. Then he accessed the earth element, and caused an upheaval of earth next to the sorcerer, which crashed like a beach wave onto him.

Kaejadra broke up the soil covering him, and telekinetically hurled the dirt bricks at Hideo, who raised a _protect_ spell to shield him. At the same time, the Estharian decided to use the plan he had devised. Gripping each elemental sword he had planted across the field with telekinesis, he hurled them at Kaejadra.

The sorcerer, shocked at the sudden attack, barely managed to evade the first one before forming an ice and fire sword in each hand, and managed to cut the next few into dust. But the last one, a fire sword, was to his side and slightly behind him, and he didn't get to it before it stabbed all the way through his right thigh.

Kaejadra let out a yell of pain, and punched the blade with his fist, making it dissolve, and blood instantly started to flow.

Hideo wasted no time in forming a new sword of ice, and with _Shadow Run_, ran in for the stab. The sorcerer half evaded and half collapsed onto his right knee, making Hideo's blade do a shallow, but long cut over his shoulder. But with the momentum of the dash, the Estharian sorcerer shoved his elbow into Kaejadra's face.

Suddenly, in his mind he was somewhere else again. This time in a gray room with a military grade cot, and nothing else. This time, instead of watching images like a movie, he saw through Kaejadra's eyes. Even more than that, he felt foreign emotions, one's he knew and recognized, yet they weren't his own.

This time, Kaejadra probably had the body of a nine year old. He shut the door behind him, and went to his bed, excitement stirring within him. He looked around the room one more time, just to make sure there wasn't a camera set up without him knowing, and he pulled the blankets away from the foot of his cot. There lay a rock, a piece of granite, a few pieces of wood bark, and a clawed talon toe from a cockatrice.

The rock was shaped somewhat like a goose head, and the granite piece was shaped something like an arrow head or a pointer. The pieces of wood bark were cut into various shapes, like a human, a house, what Hideo guessed to be an elnoyle, and one piece that didn't look like anything discernable. Young Kaejadra picked up the cockatrice claw and started carving off small filings from the unshaped wood bark.

He didn't want anyone to find out about his toys. The thought scared him to death.

"What are you doing?" A female voice said from behind him. He felt Kaejadra's body go cold as he turned around and tried desperately to hide his secret treasure behind him.

"N-nothing, y-your Eminence." He stuttered. He was knocked away from the bed and into the wall so hard he nearly lost consciousness. He didn't have enough time to protest as Andrea cast a _Fire_ spell on the cot, destroying it and his toys.

Tears welled up in his eyes, as well as greater hatred for the bitch. She turned around, and before stepping through the door, without turning to look at him, she said, "Remember your place, Kaejadra. Stop pretending to be human; you are a weapon, a tool, nothing more. If I find another such collection, or some other vanity to distract you from your purpose, you'll spend a month in the hole! You'll get a new cot in six weeks." Then she left him, alone in that small, cold room.

The memory ended, and Hideo found himself looking in Kaejadra's sweat covered face. With a grunt, he pushed the sorcerer away, making him hop a little as he favored his left leg. Hideo tried to push the recollected emotions out of his head, but he couldn't stop them from reminding him of similar times in his own childhood. He was six, with an air filled ball he bounced on the wall back to him, and he remembered the bitter feeling when one of his brother's friends pulled out a knife and punctured the ball, destroying his only toy for a laugh.

"Why are you showing me this?" Hideo asked.

"You and I are now the same." He pointed to Hideo and then himself. "We are both sorcerers, carriers of this power which no one else could ever understand." He paused a second to revel in the moment. "I have waited my whole life for this. Now I am no longer alone, and I want to enjoy THIS!" He jumped forward, and Hideo jumped back. Kaejadra put his hand to the ground, blue energy crossed the grass, covering everything in frost, and locked Hideo's legs in place in a sheet of ice.

Kaejadra ran forward, with a new fire sword in hand. A moment before he could impale his foe, Hideo's body turned to mist, and the sword went through nothing but air. The Estharian's body reappeared behind the Bastard Shepherd, and he swung his fist like a hammer into the base of Kaejadra's skull. He fell to the ground, stunned, the sword in his hand dissolving.

Hideo kicked him, forcing him onto the ground, then he jumped away. Kaejadra managed to recover fast enough to feel the attack coming, and rolled to the side as a sharp spike of rock shot out of the ground. He continued to roll to the side as more spikes shot up.

He quickly floated into the air, then the ground under him scooped up, but not by Hideo's will. The lump of earth became a ball Kaejadra held over his head, telekinetically. He brought his upwardly stretched hand back, as if to throw it. Hideo reacted quickly, multiplying gravity so violently that Kaejadra crashed onto the ground, the large ball of hard-packed dirt slamming on top of him.

All was still for a few seconds; nothing happened, save the sounds of battle off in the distance. "Come on, show yourself." Hideo said, quietly.

A low rumbling ran through the ground, gradually building in force. The mound that covered Kaejadra blew away, sending clumps of hardened dirt in every direction. The albino sorcerer flew into the air, and fired an _Ultima_ spell.

Hideo quickly cast _Reflect_, hoping the spell would be bounced right back. The whistling green ball hit the spell, and was reflected into the ground directly in front of him, where it detonated. Hideo was thrown back by the blast, and slammed into a wall of rock that suddenly shot out of the ground behind him.

Hideo felt Kaejadra manipulating his _Reflect_ spell, reversing it so that any spell that even brushed it would fly directly into the Estharian. He then fired off another _Ultima_. Hideo couldn't get out of the way fast enough, not in his slumped position. Reacting with the only thing he could, he countered the spell with another _Ultima_ spell. The two balls of green energy hit and merged, but with Kaejadra's superior power, the strength of his spell forced the combination to continue towards Hideo, just a little slower.

Reflexively, _Shadow Run_ activated. Hideo flew up and to the side, missing the spell by inches, thanks to it's slowed speed. He reached out with a modified telekinesis field, and gripped the spell without detonating it. He used its own momentum to slingshot around him, and threw it right back at the other sorcerer.

The explosion was deafening and blinding at the same time, the shockwave nearly slammed Hideo back onto the ground. The green mists faded, revealing Kaejadra with a _Shell_ around him. The shield still held, but the sweat on the sorcerer's face revealed the strain that came with it.

Hideo rose up, becoming level with his opponent. "Seems you got more than you bargained for, Kaejadra." He taunted.

The sorcerer snickered. "Oh no, I didn't. This is exactly what I wanted. If you hadn't adapted to your sorcery so quickly, so well, I would've given most of Eden's essence to you, to level the playing field."

Hideo scoffed. "You would risk your precious plans just for a little sport?"

"No, no, you've got it all wrong. I don't care about that bitch's 'carefully laid out' plans, I came here for you!" Kaejadra floated closer, until they were less than five feet apart. "I don't care about world domination, and I couldn't care less about who rules Esthar. I came here for you."

A swell of rage formed in Hideo. "You attacked Balamb, brought an army of monsters here to kill my friends and destroy my home _just_ for the chance to fight me again?"

The Bastard Shepherd shrugged. "And it worked."

Hideo was about to _Ultima_ the bastard's face, but hesitated when he heard, beyond the screams and roars and gunshots of the battles around them, the rhythmic humming of large repulsor generators. Kaejadra heard it too, and flew straight up.

With no intention of letting the sorcerer get away from him, Hideo flew up, and emerged from the fog. To the south, half a dozen military grade gunships and transports were flying around, unable to find a landing spot due to the great fog.

"Well," Kaejadra mused, "it seems my little fog spell worked better than I planned. It's hindering your backup." He snapped his fingers, as if in disappointment. A second later, the fog quickly cleared up until there was nothing obstructing the Alcauld Plains. Hundreds of dead humans and monsters littered the field for miles, and there were parts of the fields where all green and brown were covered in red.

Almost immediately, the transports touched down, and Estharian soldiers poured out. The gunships started flying across the fields, shooting at the larger monsters with the precision of Estharian technology.

This move shocked Hideo. "What are you doing?"

Kaejadra crossed his arms and turned around. "Oh this? Just leveling the playing field."

What was with this guy? The first vision made it look like he cared for monsters. Does he realize what he's done? "The gunships and troops will waste the monsters, Kaejadra. What chance do you think you have against Balamb, Esthar, SeeD, and myself?"

Kaejadra smirked. "None at all."

"And what of the Bastards?" He asked, swinging his arm to indicate the monsters.

"We'll rejoice in death." Kaejadra answered, a tone of bittersweet happiness in his voice. "All life exists to live, die, decay, and then be fed upon. My friends helped me see that. All creatures kill for food, even humans. Creatures like us, my friends and I, we achieve more in death than in life. In life we cause death, and in death we feed life."

Hideo regarded the sorcerer with a new caution. One thing that was taught in the Garden was that a suicidal enemy was among the most dangerous kind. Nothing held them back. "What are you really doing here?"

"Monsters do not fear death, it is as natural as life. The only thing they fear is an empty existence: a life and death that meant nothing to anyone, that gave no contribution to anything. Only in such an existence can one ever truly die." His eyes burrowed into Hideo. "You understand this, don't you?"

"No, I don't." Hideo lied, defiantly. But his defiance didn't stop the recollection; how he strove so hard to become more than some street urchin, how he struggled so long to become something, anything other than some dead orphan.

"Through accomplishment, we lose our fear of death, as it no longer becomes meaningless." He looked at the Estharian, and for the first time, Hideo saw pain in the sorcerer's eyes. "All I wish is to rest in peace, with my friends upon the endless plains beyond life, free of the life's suffering. I know I'll find peace if I am bested by a sorcerer more powerful than I am. Hideo, free me; give me the peace I've always been denied." The sorcerer took flight away from the gunship, and Hideo followed him, his body moving almost moving from it's own accord.

_Kaejadra…you're not what I thought you were._ The Bastard Shepard accelerated wildly towards the mountains, and Hideo was forced to use _Shadow Run_ to catch up. _We're not that different, you and I._

Snow capped peaks rushed up, and the two sorcerers flashed past them. There, storm clouds had gathered. Lightning flashes shined through the dark bodies, a fragment of the fury that was about to be unleashed within them. Kaejadra flew through the cloud with Hideo following. Moisture coated him, soaking him in icy cold water as he followed his prey. _We were never given any chance for peace._

Emerging from the dark heavens into rain filled skies, lightning illuminated a setting befitting their tormented duel. Through the torrential downpour, a large valley of jagged rock rested in the Northern Balamb Mountain Range. Within it, Kaejadra's silhouette floated loftily as dozens of familiar dark portals appeared, randomly scattered across their massive, empty arena. _You've done many cruel things, but you're not evil. You never had a choice, you had no other way out._

With a flash and roar, the first meteorites were seen, and the sorcerer's charged. Hideo activated _Shadow Run_ at the last second, shot to the side and rammed his knee into Kaejadra's face. As the sorcerer recoiled from the blow, he countered with a hasty _Blizzard_ spell, freezing half of Hideo's rain soaked body. The Estharian spun around, slamming his leg into the sorcerer's face, jagged ice shards cutting the skin. A random _Meteor_ flashed by them. Then Kaejadra grabbed his opponent in an invisible grip, and hurled them together, driving his fist into the other's gut. Adrenaline overriding the pain, Hideo kicked the other in the crotch, and used _Shadow Run_ to grab his opponent's hair and punch his face repeatedly. An unfocused telekinetic blast separated them, where they were simultaneously struck by separate meteorites. _You never gave up, while I despaired. You found your hope, and I found mine. You've chosen death, and I've chosen life. Yet we're not that different, except our fates.._

The two recovered, and charged again. Both changed tactics a moment before they would meet. Kaejadra formed a flame scimitar, but didn't use it as Hideo cast _Thundaga_, postponing their collision. Kaejadra recovered quickly, and captured his foe in a telekinetic grip. He tried to throw Hideo in front of a meteorite, but the Estharian quickly formed a counter grip, and not only pulled him along, but tried to put him ahead. The Bastard Shepherd pulled away from the rocks vector, pulling the other sorcerer along with him, and they wrestled for control. They fought each other's power, trying to push the other into a _Meteor_ spell's path. The fight of pure reflexive tug and counter-tug ended with Kaejadra slamming head-on into a meteorite, while Hideo bounced across the rugged top face. _If I had not gotten out of those slums, if I had not been given the President's proposal, would I have become like you? Are you a glimpse of what I might've been? Would I have chosen destruction over struggle?_

Hideo managed to regain control, and saw Kaejadra floating there, equally weary and worn. The albino sorcerer brought his hands close together, a massive _Ultima_ spell quickly forming. The _Shadow Run_ activated within Hideo, and he shot his hand upward, the blue energies of the ice element spewing out of his palm. Rain drops froze on contact, and with his telekinesis, he hurled them at the sorcerer, turning them into bullets as they ripped through Kaejadra's flesh. _You've found a means to gain what we've both desired so much, and you're willing to take it. I envy you, and I wish I could join you._

The flame of _Shadow Run_ still burned within him, propelling him through the air, slamming both of his feet into the other sorcerer's bloody chest. Down they went, past bullet-fast meteorites, through walls of rain, and they slammed into the rocky mountainside. Hideo didn't stop, he continued to push the sorcerer ever forward, across stone and granite, until exhaustion forced him to stop._ I can't join you, not now. I have someone waiting for me._

The Bastard Shepherd lay on the ground, with a look on his face so peaceful, were it not for the blood covering his chest and mouth, one would think he were sleeping. _I hope you find your peace now. Go now, with your friends, and rest._

Hideo left the body and took to the skies. He passed the mountains, and looked across the battle scarred plains. Many lay dead, but many still lived. Not all was lost this day.

_Good-bye, Kaejadra…thank you._

0000000000

It was supposed to have helped her. All her anxieties had rested upon this event, and though answers came, the right answers weren't there. The relief Delta had sought was postponed yet again by the news report.

_The expansive intercontinental crime syndicate known as the Black Behemoth had initiated a massive, unprovoked attack on Balamb Island this morning. Due to the quick action of SeeD, who's headquarters is located in the region, the local militia, and the arrival of Estharian support, the army was wiped out, but not without considerable losses. It is estimated that seventy-percent of SeeD had been eradicated._ The Garden was safe, Balamb was unharmed, yet the only one she cared about was not announced.

She sat with her knees to her chest, looking from the maroon cliffs overlooking Dollet toward the eastern horizon. So many dead, such a small chance of him being among the lucky. The sun setting in the west warmed her back, offering whatever comfort it could offer. The darkening eastern sky seemed to be mocking her, along with the train schedule. Of course there wouldn't be any trains leaving Dollet until tomorrow.

She gazed at the stars just visible on the horizon. "Hideo, are you alright? Will I ever see you again?" She asked out loud.

"It's possible." A voice behind her said, making her whip around to face the intruder, and she froze.

"Hideo…"

0000000000

"When you look at that ocean on a map, " Hideo said conversationally to the shocked Delta, "it doesn't look that wide, but when you try and cross it, it looks very different."

She got up quickly and ran to him, stopping an arm's length short. Her mouth was open, as if she couldn't find what she wanted to say, her gaze shifted between his new hair and eyes. She reached out her arm hesitantly, and ran her hand through his silver hair.

Hideo laughed. "Don't worry, I'm not a ghost." She brought up her other hand, and caressed his face with it, as if trying to be sure he was really there. He lifted his arms and pulled her in for an embrace. She hugged him fiercely, her cheek pressing against his shoulder. "I'm here." He said softly. "I'm here."

She lifted off his shoulder, and pulled his head in to kiss her. "Hideo," she said as she broke off the kiss, "you're really here."

"And there's nowhere else I'd rather be." He said before kissing her again.

She made this one passionate and deep. When she finally broke it off, she had a look on her face as if she were living a dream.

Hideo smiled, but not just for the passion and peace of the moment. He was afraid she'd be mad at him.

"Hideo," She said, with that dreamy look and smile still on her face and a tone to match, "back in Balamb, when you realized I wasn't going to leave, what were you thinking right then?"

_Oh shit!_ She _was_ mad. He knew if there were two things she couldn't stand, it was chivalry and chauvinism, and he had achieved both at the same time. In his panic trying to find an answer, she kneed him in the stomach so hard, he could have sworn it hit his spine.

As he doubled over, she said, still in that misleading tone, "Oh Hyne, isn't it great to be alive?"

Despite his coughing, he managed to laugh. "Yeah, actually it is."

She squatted down so her face was right in front of his, her false tone gone. "You've got a lot of explaining to do, Hideo Masters. You think you can just kiss a girl before running off to war, and return with hair and eyes like that?"

"Well, not really." He admitted. "But…" he turned on his heels and unceremoniously plopped down beside her, "we've got all the time we need." He gently pulled her onto his lap with telekinesis, earning a surprised look from her. "But there really is no place I'd rather be than right here, right now. So how about we just enjoy the sunset?"

"Oooh no!" She protested. "I am NOT letting you change the subject so eas-" He broke off her sentence by kissing her. This time, she didn't protest.

**The End.**

Author's Notes: YIPPEEE! For a little history, Duel of Fates was the first fanfic I ever wrote, and this is the rewrite of it, and this is the second time I've posted this second draft. In this second posting of the second draft, I made some changes here and there, mostly to take the occasional colloquial out the narrative, as those don't really belong there, and changed the Delta/Hideo sequences so the relationship doesn't feel so rushed. I still think it was a little rushed, and I had planned on putting more sequences in this second posting, but I could neither come up with good sequences, nor good places to put them. Apparently, the only way I could've achieved that is if I had made a whole third draft instead.

I do have a sequel pretty much completely figured out, but I just don't have the inspiration to do it. I want to keep Hideo and Delta where they are, as they've become almost like real people to me, and I don't want to put them through more suffering.


End file.
